DISYS Proposal - Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (CCPA)

Transcription

City of Charlotte – Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance
RFP# 269-2011-065 for Technology Products and Associated Services
Cover Letter
January 30, 2012
City of Charlotte
Procurement Services Division
600 East 4th Street, CMGC 9th Floor
Charlotte, NC 28202
Attn: Sarah Poulton
Re: RFP # 269-2011-065 for Technology Products and Associated Services
Dear Ms. Poulton,
DISYS Solutions, Inc. (DSI) is pleased to submit our proposal to provide Technology Products
and Associated Services to the City of Charlotte and the Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing
Alliance (CCPA). Our submission is in compliance with all the terms and conditions listed
throughout the above referenced solicitation and its addenda.
Please consider this transmittal letter, the completed bid documents, and the following proposal
as our response.
Headquarter Office:
DISYS Solutions, Inc
4151 Lafayette Center Drive, Suite 600
Chantilly, VA 20151
Phone: (888) 286-3896 or (703) 802-0500
Fax: (800) 601-2944 or (703) 802-0798
Executive Officer
Vinu Luthra, Chief Operating Officer
Project Understanding
The City of Charlotte has established the CCPA and would like to establish a comprehensive
Master Agreement that will allow the City’s Procurement Services Division and CCPA members
to purchase technology products and associated services.
Summary of Approach
DSI has the capability to provide a complete breath of products and services to meet the City of
Charlotte and CCPA’s needs. We are able to provide a full range of technology hardware,
software, and associate peripherals through our many distributor and manufacturer partnerships.
In order to offer the City and CCPA contracts users with a full scope of services, DSI has
established partnerships with industry leading companies in Cloud, Data Center, Unified
Security, Unified Communications, Web Hosting, Disaster Recovery and Backup. DSI has the
right people, processes, and tools to successfully provide technology products and associated
services to the City of Charlotte and CCPA members.
Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
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Table of Contents
Cover Letter ...................................................................................................................................1 1. Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................5 2. Service Provider Minimum Qualifications .............................................................................9 2.1 Local Presence .....................................................................................................................9 2.2 Dedicated Account Representative ......................................................................................9 2.3 Portfolio of Technology Products and Associated Services ................................................9 2.3.1 Technology Products – Hardware and Software .....................................................10 2.3.2 Services ...................................................................................................................15 2.3.3 Help Desk ................................................................................................................16 2.3.4 Training ...................................................................................................................22 2.3.5 Consulting ...............................................................................................................24 2.3.6 Value Added Services .............................................................................................25 2.3.7 Manufacturer’s Extended Warranty ........................................................................31 3. Background and Experience ..................................................................................................33 3.1 Official Name.....................................................................................................................33 3.2 Service Provider Background ............................................................................................35 3.2.1 Company Overview .................................................................................................35 3.2.2 Organization and Ownership ...................................................................................40 3.2.3 Experience with Similar Projects ............................................................................41 3.3 Proposing Organization’s Structure ...................................................................................42 3.4 Analytic Approach .............................................................................................................44 3.5 Guarantor ...........................................................................................................................44 3.6 Financial Information.........................................................................................................44 3.7 Proposed Project Team ......................................................................................................44 3.8 Past of Pending Judgments ................................................................................................45 3.9 Financial and Legal Considerations ...................................................................................45 3.10 Management Approach ......................................................................................................45 3.10.1 Customer Service Philosophy .................................................................................45 3.10.2 Total Quality Plan ...................................................................................................46 3.10.3 Continuous Improvement Program .........................................................................48 3.10.4 Adapting to Changing Technologies .......................................................................49 3.11 Personnel Management ......................................................................................................50 3.11.1 Dedicated Account Team ........................................................................................50 3.12 References ..........................................................................................................................54 4. Proposed Solution ....................................................................................................................55 4.1 Process ...............................................................................................................................55 4.2 Transition Plan ...................................................................................................................55 Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
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4.3 Service Transition ..............................................................................................................59 4.4 Project Plan ........................................................................................................................61 4.5 Client Relationship Management .......................................................................................66 4.6 Risk Management ..............................................................................................................67 4.7 Proposed Pricing ................................................................................................................75 5. Required Forms .......................................................................................................................84 Attachment 1 – Marketing and Reporting ................................................................................85 Attachment 1.A – Marketing .....................................................................................................85 Attachment 1.B – Reporting ......................................................................................................91 Appendix A – Infrastructure Capabilities .................................................................................98 Appendix B – Unified Security ...................................................................................................99 Appendix C – Unified Communications ..................................................................................100 Appendix D – Disaster Recovery and Backup ........................................................................101 Appendix E – Web Hosting .......................................................................................................102 Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
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1. Executive Summary
DISYS Solutions, Inc., (DSI) together with its local, dedicated account, support, management and
engineering teams have assembled an aggressive and technologically broad scope of IT products and
services that exceed the requirement of this Request for Proposal. We have developed these
solutions to benefit taxpayers, end users such as fire, police, city and state governments and with our
team we will make administering this contract as simple for the CCPA and the City of Charlotte as
possible.
Our corporate philosophy is to provide best-in-class products and services. In this regard that we
were able to bring together the best suppliers and partners who rank in Gartner’s upper quadrant, at
very aggressive price points.
Our suppliers are confident in their ability to meet any requirement of the CCPA as all our solutions
are delivered by DSI ECO-System Alliance Partners that are specifically focused on the Public
Sector – Non-Profit, FED & SLED; these partners are best-in-class in their respective solution sets.
Adding that we have built the right team, processes, and technology to successfully help integrate
the City of Charlotte, CCPA and the products and services that we are offering as part of this
general IT Contract as a market and time proven formula for success.
People and Process
DSI has been providing Consultative IT products and services for over 20 years. It is in these areas,
our people and processes, we feel that we will be more agile, responsive and capable of working
with the City and CCPA Clients and within the technical offerings we have suggested when called
upon to perform, be that a quote, a design question up to and including a project.
We understand that the requests from the CCPA will be of a wide variety of technical environments
that are sometimes broadly diversified across many manufacturers. Because of our agility and
expanded portfolio that we have had success with, we are confident our ability to acknowledge a
request, analyze the requirement, make a recommendation and propose an aggressive, consultative
solution is superior to other responses to this request.
Engineering, Tracking and Reporting Performance within the CCPA/City Contract will play a vital
role in a successful, long term implementation of this contract. Because we are able to focus on
response time, accuracy and have a team in place to review requests, we at DIYs are confident our
service will be unparalleled implementing this contract.
Related Experience
DSI has 20 years of experience providing products and services to Government and Education
agencies. We have held similar contracts to provide technology hardware, software, and services in
States including: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
Wisconsin.
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Breadth of Products and Services
DSI has the capability to provide a complete range of technology products and services. Through our
manufacturer and distributor partnerships, we are able provide more than 1,000,000 different
products from over 1,000 manufacturers. We are also able to provide installation, configuration,
training and services in areas such as cloud, data center, unified security, unified communications,
web hosting, disaster recovery and backup, and more. The ability to provide the type of breadth is an
asset to CCPA, but more importantly it is the ability of DSI to leverage the technology choices
available in the market place. DSI provides best value because our dedicated sales teams take the
time to review an agency's specifications for technology products and leverage our 20 years of
technology procurement experience, multitude of manufacturer partnerships, and resource pool of
engineers to provide products that will fit an agency infrastructure now and in the future. This
document is an overview of the methodologies DSI will undertake to provide best value for
technology products needed by CCPA affiliates.
When it comes to choosing computer products, CCPA requires devices which use industry standards
“open-systems”, and have the flexibility and functionality to easily upgrade with current and
emerging technologies. DSI takes the time to evaluate all brands of products on the market, not just
those manufacturers we sell the most of. Our selling practice is to first review a customer’s need,
research brands which might meet those needs, taking into consideration the customer’s unique
infrastructure, and determine which products will meet their current and future needs. We normally
also leverage pricing and product trade-in values. While pricing is a consideration, our focus is more
on meeting critical mission suitability of the products to our customer specifications. We provide
them with well researched choices. This type of services frees education agency personnel and saves
money in time, resources, and the bottom line.
Overview of Solutions
Unified Security Solution - The products selected for the 3 subsets of CCPA Unified Security –
Physical Security, Asset Management, and IT Security are best in class in this industry. Delivered in
partnership with Eco-Systems Alliance Partner, DFISS, and recognized pioneer and leader in the
Unified Security and Command and Control Centers space; with the added value proposition that for
the “Unifying Fabric”, we are proposing the world’s leading application for managing both Physical
and Information Security Incidents and Alerts – and one that can support, out of the box, 150+
different security products. This flagship product is Proximex Surveillint.
Surveillint is the only COTS application in the industry that can fuse all security products,
irrespective of vendor brand – and manage their alerts and incidents, in a single-click, single window
view. The ability to perform in multi-vendor environments will be of paramount concern to many
CCPA End Users. We can integrate Physical Security IM (“PSIM”) and Information Security IM
(“SIEM”) incidents and alerts.
DSI is also proud to offer Terremark Services for Cloud Computing Solutions. Terremark is among
the top 2 rated Cloud Services Providers, in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. Equally important, we have
secured the deepest discounts for these services available that we have passed on to the CCPA End
Users in this Contract.
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DSI is also offering best in class Data Center Solutions through Eco-Systems Alliance Partner
InvPower, a subsidiary of TSS – one of the leading national service providers in Data and Fusion
Center Design, Construction, Products and Services. InvPower is one of Schneider Electric/ APC’s
exclusive Authorized Federal Installation and Maintenance Partners, for Data Center Power
Protection and Monitoring systems.
Microsoft Implementation and Training is also among the many solutions we have included in this
response. In the next 5 years, which is the initial term of this Contract, most, if not all organizations
will be going to Office 2010 and most will require training along with implementation for this
requirement. DSI has teamed with a local expert in the training arena, CPI Training. Similar to DSI,
CPI is certified with the City of Charlotte as an SBE, the state of North Carolina as HUB and also
CCR certified with the federal government. The committee may be familiar with them as their
clients include UNCC, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and several community colleges such as
Trident Technical College in North Charleston, SC.
DSI Unified Architectures Eco-System Products and Services
The graphic bellows shows our Unified Architectures Eco-System Alliance Partners for products and
services:
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Customer Satisfaction Excellence Recognition
DSI has consistently received accolades for achieving Customer Satisfaction Excellence. Our
customer satisfaction ratings through independent reviews such as Open Ratings and manufacturer
partners are consistently well over 90%. Our local, inside and management teams are all dedicated
to making this contract successful in both the initial term and beyond.
Value-Add Services
Depending on volumes, as mentioned in our pricing, DSI will provide free consultation and training
to the City and CCPA qualified personnel as well as the appropriate reporting and billing reports to
the City and CCPA. Should buyers require Professional Services and any additional training, this can
be provided on a time and materials basis.
Conclusion
With the insight and knowledge gained from years of experience working with State/Local
Government and Education agencies throughout the County, DSI can hit the ground running on day
one of the contract. DSI can provide the City and CCPA contract users with best-in-class technology
products and services. We will work diligently to market the new CCPA contract to customers
throughout the State of North Carolina as well as the County. DSI has the capability and resources to
help make the CCPA Technology Products and Associated Services contract a success.
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2. Service Provider Minimum Qualifications
2.1 Local Presence
DSI’s local offices are located at:
401 North Tryon Street
10th Floor, Suite 1093
Charlotte, NC 28202
and:
7467 Sedgebrook Drive W
Stanley NC 28164
Our outside sales rep will be able to respond to the City of Charlotte in-person within a maximum of
two business days.
2.2 Dedicated Account Representative
Our Director of Operations, Vijay Soni, will be the sole point of contact for this Master Agreement.
Dedicated Account Representatives include (please see Section 4.11 for a complete overview of our
dedicated account team for the City of Charlotte and CCPA):




Pankaj Sharma – NC Sales Team Leader
Vinant Prahlad – NC Inside Sales Rep
Chuck Griffith – NC Outside Sales Rep
Tina Tiwana – Customer Service Rep
DSI agrees to acknowledge any report issues within one business day of receipt of notification. Our
escalation procedures normally require us to respond within one business hour or receipt of
notification.
2.3 Portfolio of Technology Products and Associated Services
DSI has the capability to offer a full range of technology products and services. The sections below
detail the different categories of products and services that we can provide.
In the sections below, DSI has detailed the amount of products and variety of brands we can provide.
The ability to provide the type of breadth is an asset to CCPA, but more importantly it is the ability
of DSI to leverage the technology choices available in the market place. DSI provides best value
because our dedicated sales teams take the time to review an agency's specifications for technology
products and leverage our 20years of technology procurement experience, multitude of manufacturer
partnerships, and resource pool of engineers to provide products that will fit an agency infrastructure
now and in the future. This document is an overview of the methodologies DSI will undertake to
provide best value for technology products needed by CCPA contract users.
When it comes to choosing computer products, CCPA contract users will require devices which use
industry standards “open-systems”, and have the flexibility and functionality to easily upgrade with
current and emerging technologies. DSI takes the time to evaluate all brands of products on the
January 31, 2012
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market, not just those manufacturers we sell the most of. Our selling practice is to first review a
customer’s need, research brands which might meet those needs, taking into consideration the
customer’s unique infrastructure, and determine which products will meet their current and future
needs. We normally also leverage pricing and product trade-in values. While pricing is a
consideration, our focus is more on meeting critical mission suitability of the products to our
customer specifications. We provide them with well researched choices. This type of services frees
education agency personnel and saves money in time, resources, and the bottom line.
2.3.1
Technology Products – Hardware and Software
Through our distribution partners, we have immediate access over 1 million different technology
products. An example of the product categories that we can offer is shown in the table below. DSI
is able to offer all information technology hardware and software products and services available
on the market with very few exceptions.
Accessories and Supplies
Cables and Connectors; Switches and Boxes; Desk Accessories; Monitor Accessories; Notebook Accessories;
Printer Accessories; Cases and Covers; CPU Mounting Kits and Accessories; Other Accessories and Equipment;
Media and Tape Cartridges; Media and Floppy Disks; Media and Removable Disks; Media and Optical Disks;
Paper Supplies; Printer Supplies; Carrying Case; Label Supplies; Camera Accessories; Scanner Accessories.
Computers and Terminals
Multiprocessor Systems; Desktop Computers; Thin Clients or Terminals; Tower Computers; Rackmount
Computers; Handheld Computers or PDAs; Notebook Computers
Chassis Types
Desktop; Mini Tower; Mid Tower; Full Tower; File Server; Rack Mount
Motherboard Types
NLX; BAT; AT; LPX; FAT; MATX; ATX; EATX
Education
Training Courses; Self Study Courses; On Site Training
Enhancement Products
Adapters and Interfaces; RAID Adapters; Audio Output Devices; Sound and Multimedia; Performance
Enhancements; Input Output Boards and Systems; Other Add In Boards and Chips
Input Devices
Audio Input Devices; Camera Imaging; Graphics Tablets; Bar Code Scanners; Keyboards and Keypads; Pointing
Devices; Image Scanners
Network and Communications
Bridges or Routers or Gateways; Multi Service Chassis; WAN Communication Products; Satellite
Communication Products; Host Connectivity or Emulation Hardware; LAN Media Connectors; Network Hubs
and MAUs; Network Switches or Chassis; Routing Switches; Network Repeaters; Network Adapters or
Interfaces; Peripheral Servers or Sharing Units; Internet Server or Access Units; Test or Monitoring Equipment or
Tools; Modems or Chassis or Terminal Adapter; Facsimile
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Memory
Memory Boards and Chips; Other Add In Boards and Chips; Proprietary or 3rd Party Memory; Generic Memory
Office Equipment and Accessories and Supplies
Binding Supplies; Furniture and Accessories; Filing Supplies; Forms and Record Keeping; Office Equipment and
Accessories; Paper Products; Writing Instruments; Dated Products; Shipping and Warehouse Supplies; Cashier
Equipment and Accessories; Meeting Supplies; Office Supplies
Power Equipment
UPS Systems Line Interactive; Power Adapters; Power Isolators; Power Conditioners; Supplies and Batteries;
UPS Systems Standby; Surge Suppressors; UPS Systems On Line
Premise Wiring and Rack Systems
Premise Wiring and Cables and Rack Systems; Bulk Cable and Accessories; Patch Cords and Finished Cables;
WAN Interface Cables
Printed Information
Manuals; Books; Education Products; Graphics and Photo Cds; Documentation; Periodicals
Printers and Plotters
Dot Matrix Printers; Laser or LED Page Printers; Solid Ink Printers; Dye Sublimation Printers; Label Printer;
Multifunctional Laser; Multifunctional Inkjet; Thermal Printers; Plotters; Line Printers; Ink Jet Printers; Video
Printers; Copier
Services and Agreements
On Line Services; Hardware Maintenance Agreements; Configuration Services; Software Maintenance
Agreements; Program Fulfillment; Technical Support Services; Training
Software Applications, Communications, Systems
Accounting; Word Processing; Tax Preparation; Spreadsheets; Mapping or Atlas Products; Presentation Graphics;
Contact Management; Organization and Time Mgmt; Business Productivity or Automation; Reference;
Multimedia Applications; Imaging; Integrated Applications; Document Imaging or Mgmt; Graphics; Fonts;
Screen Saver; Home and Hobbies; Entertainment; Education; CAD CAM; Desktop Publishing; Charting and
Forms; Database; Education; Communications; Communications Utilities; Computer to Computer Links; E Mail;
EDI; Internet Software and Utilities; Electronic Software Distribution Systems; Fax; Groupware; Gateways and
Interfaces; Network Management and Utilities; Network Operating Systems; Network Integrated Information
System; Network Resource Sharing; Internet or Intranet Software and Utilities; Intranet Software and Utilities;
Internet Server; Internet Browser; OCR; Terminal Emulation; Remote Control; Speech Recognition; UPS
Monitoring; Remote Access; Telephony; Compilers and Languages; Backup Utilities; File Management; Data
Entry and Acquisition; Drivers and Installation; Printer Utilities; Menuing Systems; Multimedia Engines and
Tools; Operating Systems and Enhancements; Graphical User Interface; Programming Utilities; Object Class
Library; Protocol Stack Managers; Security and Auditing; Anti-Virus; Other Utilities; Database Servers or
Engines; Database Client; Database Drivers; Application Development Tools; System Management Tools; Data
Warehousing Software; Decision Support Software; Database Report Generators
Storage Devices or Enclosures
Floppy Drives; Notebook Hard Drives; Servers; Drive Enclosures; Tape Drives; Disk Arrays; Portable Drives;
Removable Drives; DVD Drives; Optical and CD ROM Drives; Hard Drives; External Hard Drives
Telephony
Audio or Video Conferencing; CTI Kits; Facsimile; Messaging; PBX; PC Based PBX; Software; Telephones;
Voice Over IP
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Video Adapters and Displays
Monochrome Monitors; Video Adapters or Accelerators; Color Monitors; Video Projection Products;
Touchscreen; LCD Flat Panel Displays; Plasma Display
Accessibility
Additionally, DSI can provide the following non inclusive types of accessibility products which are
Section 508 Compliant as needed.
Section 508 Standard
Equipment
Braille Readers
Print Readers
Low Vision Aids
Vendors and Products Offered
EnableMart - Braille Embossers; Braille Displays; Braille Labelers
TVI - Reading Machines, Note Takers; Braille Printers/Embossers
TVI - Magnilink
GW Micro - Vocal-Eyes; Window-Eyes
Voice Recognition
Braille Keyboards
EnableMart - Screen Magnifiers; Screen Readers; Video Magnifiers (CCTV);
EnableMart - Amplified Telephones; TTY Devices
EnableMart - Ergonomic Keyboards; Large Keys/Large Print Keyboards; One-Handed
Keyboards; Ergonomic and Alternative Mice; Touch Pads; Trackballs
Alternative Authentication
Access Control Devices
Sony Fingerprint Identity Device; Targus Defcon Fingerprint Reader; Identix BioTouch
Fingerprint Scanner; Onclick VIA Fingerprint Scanner; Keytronic SmartCard Reader
DSI Unified Architectures Eco-System Products
The graphic bellows shows our Unified Architectures Eco-System Alliance Partners:
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Hardware and Software Brands
The following list is an example of the brands that we can offer:
Hardware Brands:
3Com Corporation; 3K Computers, Inc; 3M; 3ware; ACCO Brands Corporation; Acer, Inc; ACP - Memory Upgrades; ACP-EP
Memory; ActivIdentity, Inc; Adaptec, Inc; A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd; Addonics Technologies; Adesso, Inc; Ads Technologies;
Adtran; Advanced Industrial Computec; Advanced Micro Devices, Inc; AITech; Aleratec, Inc; Alliance Storage Technologic., Allied
Telesis, Inc; Allsop, Inc; Altec Lansing; Aluratek, Inc; American Microsystems, Ltd; American Power Conversion Corp; AMX;
Anchor Audio, Inc; Antec, Inc; AOC; AOpen, Inc; Apricorn, Inc; ASUS Computer International; ATDEC PTY LTD; Aten
Technologies; Atto Technology; Audiovox Corporation; Avaya, Inc; Avid Technology, Inc; Avocent Corporation; Axiom Memory
Solutions; Axis Communications; Baracoda, Inc; Belkin International, Inc; BenQ Corporation; Best Data Products, Inc; BIC; Black
Box Corporation; Blue Start, Inc.; Boss Audio Systems; Brady Corporation; Brainboxes Limited; Bretford Manufacturing, Inc;
Brocade Communications Systc.; Brother Industries, Ltd; Buffalo Technology (USA), Inc; Buslink Media; Bytecc, Inc; Cable
Manufacturing, Inc; Cables To Go; Cables Unlimited; Canon, Inc; Casio Computer Co., Ltd; Cavalry Storage, Inc; Centon
Electronics; Certance; Check Point Software Technod; Chelsio Communications; Chenbro Micom Co., Ltd; Cherry Corporation;
Chief Manufacturing; Chip Pc, Inc; Ciena Corporation; Cisco Systems, Inc; Citizen Micro HumanTech; Clearone Communications;
Clickfree; Clover Electronics U.S.A; CMS Products, Inc; Cobra Electronics Corporation; Coby Electronics Corporation; Colorgraphic
Communications Inc.; Comtrol Corporation; Conair Corporation; Connectpro; Cooler Master Co., Ltd; Coolmax Technology, Inc;
Corsair Memory; CP Technologies; Creative Labs; Creston Electronics, Inc; CRU Acquisitions Group, LLC; Crucial Technology;
CTA Digital, Inc; CTL; CTO PRO Macbook Pros; Cybernet Manufacturing, Inc; CyberPower Systems, Inc; Da-Lite Screen
Company; Dane Electronics; Dane-Elec Memory; Data Domain; Datalogic S.p.A; Dataram Corporation; Dell, Inc; Diamond
Multimedia, USA; Digi International; DigiStore Solutions (S) Pted; Digital Peripheral Solution Inc.; D-Link Systems, Inc;
DoubleSight Displays, LLC; DPI, Inc; Dreamgear net, LLC; DT Research, Inc; DuVoice Corporation; DXG Technology USA, Inc;
Eastman Kodak Company; Eaton Corporation; EDGE Tech Corporation; Eizo Nanao Tech; Elgato Systems; Elite Screens, Inc;
Elotouch; EMC Corporation; Emerson Radio Corporation; Emulex Corporation; Enterasys Networks; Envoy Security Group; EP
Memory; Epson Corporation; Ergotron, Inc; EverFocus Electronics Corpon; EVGA Corporation; Exabyte Corporation; Excel
Meridian Data, Inc; Fantom Drives; Fargo Electronics; Fellowes, Inc; First Mobile Technologies; Fluke Networks; Fortinet, Inc; Fuji
Photo Film Co. Ltd; Fujitsu; Fujitsu Siemens Computers; Future Memory Solutions, LLC; Garmin, Ltd; Gateway; GBICS; Gear
Head, LLC; Gefen, Inc; Generic; GeoVision, Inc; Getac, Inc; Giga-Byte Technology CO; Gigabyte Technology, Inc; Grandtec USA;
Guillemot Corporation B.P.; GVision, Inc; Haier America; Hannspree, Inc; Hauppauge Computer Works; Hawking Technologies, Inc;
Hewlett-Packard; HID Global Corporation; Hitachi; Hitachi, Ltd; Honest Technology; Hosa Technology, Inc; Hyundai ImageQuest.,
Ltd; Hyundai IT Corporation; IBM Corporation; Iiyama; Imation Corp; Imation Corp.; In Win Development, Inc; InFocus
Corporation; Innovation First, Inc; Intec, Inc; Intel Corporation; Intermec Technologies Corpon; International Innovations, Inc;
IOGEAR, Inc; IOMAGIC Corp.; Iomega Corporation; iStarUSA, Inc; Jaton Corporation; JVC Information Products; jWIN
Electronics Corporation; Kanguru Solutions; Kensington Computer Productp; Kingston Technology; Kingston Technology Company;
KONFTEL AB; Konica Minolta; Kramer Electronics LTD; La Cie / Quantum; LaCie; Lava Computer MFG, Inc; Lenovo Group
Limited; Lexar Media, Inc; Lexmark International, Inc; LG Electronics; LifeSize Communications, Inc; Lind Electronic Design; Link
Depot Corporation; Linksys; Lite-On Technology Corporation; Logic Controls, Inc; Logicube, Inc; Logitech; LSI Logic Corp; Mace
Group, Inc; Mace Security Internationalc; Marshall Electronics, Inc; Matrox; Maxell; McAfee, Inc; Mediamounts, Ltd; Mediatech
Industrial, Inc; Mellanox Technologies Ltd; Memorex Products, Inc; Micro Innovations; MicroNet Technology; Micropac
Technologies; Microsoft Corporation; Micro-Star International Cod; Minicom Advanced Systems, Ltd; Minolta; Miracle Business,
Inc; Miracle Computers; Mitsubishi; Mobile Edge; Monster Cable Products, Inc; Motion Computing, Inc; M-S Cash Drawer
Corporation; MSI Computer Corporation; Multi-Tech Systems, Inc; Mushkin, Inc; NB Open Distribution; NEC Corporation; NEC
Display Solutions; Netgear, Inc; Network Assoc. Academic; Nokia; Norazza, Inc; Nortel Networks Limited; Notebook Memory
Upgrades; Novell, Inc; Numark Industries, LLC; OCZ Technology, Inc; Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd; Olixir Technologies; Olympus
Corporation; Optoma Technology; Overland Storage; Panasonic; Parallels, Inc; Partner Tech USA; Peerless Industries, Inc; Pentax
Imaging Company; Peripheral Enhancements Corn; Perle Systems, Inc; Philips Electronics; Pioneer POS, Inc; Pioneer Research;
Planar Systems, Inc; Plasmon IDE, Inc; Plextor Corporation; PNY Technologies; Power Acoustik Electronics; Premier Mounts;
Primera Technology; Printronix, Inc; Promise Technology; Pyle Audio, Inc; QLogic Corp; QNAP Systems; Quantum Corp; Quantum
Corporation; Quatech, Inc; Ricoh Company, Ltd; Rose Electronics; Sabrent, Inc; Saic; Sakar International, Inc; Samsung; SanDisk
Corporation; Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd; Sato Corporation; SCM Micro Systems, Inc; Seagate Technology; Seal Shield Corporation;
Second Source; Sharp Electronics; Shuttle, Inc; Siig, Inc; Socket Mobile, Inc; Sole Source Technology, LLC; SonicWALL; Sonnet
Technologies, Inc; Sony Corporation; Speco Technologies; StarTech.com; Steren Electronics, LLC; Stewart; Storage H/W & Support;
Storage Soft; Sun Microsystems; Supermicro Computer, Inc; Supermicro, Inc; Symantec Corporation; Synology, Inc; TAA Products
LLC.; Tallygenicom, L.P; Tandberg Data Corporation; Targus Group International; Tatung Co.; TDK Electronics; Teac America, Inc;
Thermaltake Technology Co.; Third Party Parts; Toshiba; Transcend Information, Inc; Transition Networks, Inc; Trend Micro
Incorporated; TRENDnet; Tripp Lite; Trustin Technology, Inc; TTX Canada, Inc; Tyan Computer Corp; Tyco Electronics; Ultra
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Products; Unibrain, Inc; Unitech Electronics Co., Ltd; United Digital Technologies, Inc; Unotron, Inc; UnyTouch Manufacturing;
UPEK, Inc; Uptime Devices; V7; Valcom, Inc; Vanguard(USA), Inc; VASCO Data Security Internal; Verbatim America, LLC;
Victory; Viewcast Osprey; Viewsonic Corporation; Vinpower Digital; VisionTek Products, LLC; Vizio, ncC; Voyetra Turtle Beach,
Inc; VTech Holdings, Ltd; Vxl Instruments Limited; Wasp Barcode Technologies; Watchguard Technologies, Inc; Western Digital
Corporation; WiebeTech, LLC; Winnov; Wintech Software Design; Wyse Technology, Inc; Xerox Corporation; XFX Technologies,
Inc; Zebra Technologies Corporation; ZOTAC International; Zyxel Communications Corp.
Software Brands:
3Com Corporation; Aastra Technologies Limited; Abbyy Software House; Absolute Software Corp; Acer, Inc; Acronis, Inc;
ActivIdentity, Inc; Adobe Systems, Inc; Adtran; AEC Software, Inc; Allied Telesis, Inc; Alloy Software, Inc; AltiGen
Communications, Inc; Ambir Technology, Inc; American Microsystems, Ltd; American Power Conversion Corp; Archos Technology;
Array Networks, Inc; Attachmate Corporation; Atto Technology; Auto/Virtual Software; Autodesk, Inc; Availability Education;
Avanquest Software; Avaya, Inc; AVG Technologies; Avid Technology, Inc; Axis Communications; Barracuda Networks, Inc; Brady
Corporation; Brocade Communications Systems; Brother Industries, Ltd; Canon, Inc; Century Software; Channel Sources; Channel
Vision Technology; Check Point Software Technologies; Chip Pc, Inc; Cisco Systems, Inc; CMS Products, Inc; Coby Electronics
Corporation; Computer Associates International; Corel Corporation; CP Technologies; Creative Labs; CyberGuard Corporation;
CyberLink Corp; DataCore Software Corporation; Datalogic S.P.A; Dataram Corporation; Datawatch Corporation; Detto
Technologies; Dialogic Corporation; Digi International; Diskeeper Corporation; D-Link Systems, Inc; Double-Take Software, Inc;
DuVoice Corporation; DYMO Corporation; Eastman Kodak Company; Eaton Corporation; EDGE Tech Corporation; Eizo Nanao
Tech; Elgato Systems; Embarcadero Technologies, Inc; EMC Corporation; Emerson Network Power Solutions; Enterasys Networks;
Epson Corporation; Ergotron, Inc; Ericom Software; Exacq Technologies, Inc.; Excel Meridian Data, Inc; Extensis Corporation;
Extreme Networks, Inc; Fargo Electronics; Fellowes, Inc; Filemaker, Inc; Fluke Networks; Force10 Networks, Inc; Frontrange
Solutions; Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd; Fujitsu; Garmin, Ltd; GeoVision, Inc; GFI Software Ltd; Hewlett-Packard; HID Global
Corporation; Honest Technology; Honeywell International, Inc; HumanConcepts; IBM Corporation; ILinc Communications, Inc.;
Imation Corp; Impulse Point; IMSI/Design, LLC; Intego; Intel Corporation; Intuit, Inc; Ipswitch, Inc; IRIS, Inc; Ironmonkey, Inc.; ISI
Research Soft (Thomson I); JDS Uniphase Corporation; Kanguru Solutions; Kerio Technologies, Inc.; Kofax Image Products;
Lantronix, Inc; Laplink Software, Inc; Lenovo Group Limited; Lexmark International, Inc; Liebert Corporation; Lite-On Technology
Corporation; Logicube, Inc.; LPI Level Platforms, Inc; LSI Logic Corp; Matrox; McAfee, Inc; Mediatech Industrial, Inc; Meru
Networks; MessageLabs, Inc; Micro Focus (IP) Ltd; Microsoft Corporation; Milestone Systems; Monster Cable Products, Inc; Moog,
Inc; Motorola, Inc; Mount10 Holding AG; Mushkin, Inc; Myob Us; N-able Technologies, Inc; NEC Display Solutions; Nero AG /
Nero, Inc; Nero Software Academic; Netgear, Inc; Netop Solutions, A/S; Network Assoc. Academic; Network Engines, Inc; Nolo
Press, Inc; Nortel Networks Limited; NovaStor Corporation; Novell, Inc; Nuance Communications, Inc; Numark Industries, LLC; Oki
Electric Industry Co., Ltd; Olympus Corporation; Open Text Corporation; Oracle Corporation; Overland Storage; Palo Alto Software,
Inc; Panasonic; Paragon Software Group; Parallels, Inc; Peerless Industries, Inc; Personics; Pervasive Software, Inc; Philips
Electronics; Pinnacle Systems, Inc; PNY Technologies; Power Strips; Printronix, Inc; Proxim Wireless Corporation; Punch Software;
QLogic Corp; Quantum Corp; Quantum Corporation; Quark, Inc; Quest Software; Raritan Computer; Red Hat, Inc; Research In
Motion Limited; Ricoh Company, Ltd; Rose Electronics; RSA Security, Inc; Safend, Inc; SAP America, Inc; Scalable Software, LLC;
SCM Micro Systems, Inc; ScriptLogic Corporation; Second Source; Sharp Electronics; Siemens AG; Software Shelf International;
Softwin Group; SolarWinds Network Management; Sole Source Technology, LLC; Sonic Solutions; SonicWALL; Sony Corporation;
St. Bernard Software; Stoneware, Inc; STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION; Supermicro Computer, Inc; Supermicro, Inc; Sybase, Inc;
Symantec Corporation; Synergy Software; Synology, Inc; Systran Software, Inc; Tandberg Data Corporation; Teac America, Inc;
TechSmith Corporation; Teklynx International; The Sage Group plc; The SCO Group, Inc; Toshiba; Trend Micro Incorporated;
TRENDnet; Tripp Lite; Trustin Technology, Inc; TT International Limited; Unitech Electronics Co., Ltd; United Digital
Technologies; UnXis, Inc; Uptime Devices; Valcom, Inc; VASCO Data Security International; VEEAM Software - Maintenance;
Veramark Technologies, Inc; Victory; Viewsonic Corporation; Visioneer, Inc; VMware, Inc; Wasp Barcode Technologies;
Watchguard Technologies, Inc; Wavelink Corporation; Webroot Software, Inc; Websense, Inc; WebTrends, Inc; Wyse Technology,
Inc; Xerox Corporation; X-Rite, Inc; Zebra Technologies Corporation; ZManda, Inc.; Zyxel Communications Corp.
January 31, 2012
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2.3.2
Services
DSI can offer a full range of technical and professional services. We have an in-house staff of
manufacturer certified technicians and engineers that can provide support for a wide variety of
technology needs including installation, configuration, testing, integration, maintenance, and much
more. Through our own resources and partners, DSI can provide support for the following
technology services referenced in the RFP (please refer to the referenced Appendices for more
information about each of these solutions):
3.6.2.A – Infrastructure Capabilities
3.6.2.B – Unified Security Capabilities
3.6.2.C – Unified Communications Capabilities
3.6.2.O – Disaster Backup and Recovery
3.6.2.Q – Web Hosting Services
3.6.3 – Ongoing Support and Maintenance
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Appendix F
In addition to the categories above, DSI can also provide Help Desk, Training, and Consulting
services.
DSI Unified Architectures Eco-System Services
The graphic bellows shows our Unified Architectures Eco-System Alliance Partners:
January 31, 2012
15
2.3.3
Help Desk
DSI can provide CCPA with helpdesk technicians required to support the infrastructure of desktops,
their associated monitors, personal printers, laser printers, and other desktop peripheral equipment.
As part of the Help Desk offering, DSI can provide warranty and non-warranty repair (break/fix)
services to agency locations. DSI can also provide senior system engineers to work on the following
types of projects: computer replacement rollouts and other installation, replacement, or upgrade
projects at the CCPA contract user locations. DSI will provide the set of tools needed for break/fix
work on all types of computer equipment for each technician if needed.
Below is a summary of our Helpdesk process:
CCPA contract users can contact DSI’s toll-free number via the contact methods listed below 24hours per day, seven-days per week to receive technical support. After hours support requires
selecting the emergency option number on the voice greeting, as prompted, and leaving a message.
In addition to telephonic support, customers will be provided with support services via Email and
Internet access.
Help Desk Phone:
Toll Free: (888) 286-3896
Email:
[email protected]
Fax:
Toll Free: (703) 802-0798
Service Request Process
When a call comes into DSI, first and foremost a service ticket is opened in our e-ticketing system.
At that time the priority level is assigned in accordance with the customer’s maintenance agreement
and/or problem severity. All calls are forwarded to our technicians or manufacturer call center within
a maximum of one hour; however most calls are responded to in less than fifteen minutes. A
standard escalation procedure is set for manufacturers such as Cisco which include information for
both DSI and Manufacturer Technical and Account Team contacts. As shown below the ticket is
assigned and progress recorded at every step. Once the case is entered, DSI technical support
personnel track the progress of the case using Sage CRM.
January 31, 2012
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Sample Service Ticket
The figure below shows an example of how progress is tracked
Tracking Service Progress Example
Close Out Procedures
As previously mentioned in other sections, to ensure prompt service all requests for any type of
service is assigned a Help Desk Ticket using our SAGE CRM Help Desk and Service Software..
SAGE CRM contributes to the success of a project by ensuring clear communication of project
January 31, 2012
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deliverables and expected timelines. SAGE CRM provides the project leader with the ability to
generate reports showing concise and pertinent information related to the status of assigned work
and its adherence to the schedule.
When a ticket is created, a tracking number is issued to the customer. At any later point, the
customer may inquire the status of a call using their tracking number by either calling in to our
offices or via the web. Each ticket has an associated escalation schedule which assigns the ticket to a
staff member on duty who must complete the ticket or delegate it. If the ticket is unresolved by a set
timeframe it is escalate on to senior staff members and ultimately to the CEO of the Company.
Once a DSI technician resolves the problem and closes the ticket, the customer will receive
notification that the issue has been resolved. If the customer believes that the issue has not been
resolve, he/she can reopen the ticket.
Once a case is closed, information describing how the case was resolved is kept on Sage CRM,
providing a store of knowledge that can be used to resolve similar issues quickly in the future.
Escalations and Notifications
Handling trouble calls and repairs from the receipt of the trouble report until the trouble is cleared
requires a proven methodology. When a call comes in to the Service Department, or a Help Desk
Ticket is created via the web, a tracking number is issued to the customer. At any later point, the
customer may inquire about the status of a call using their tracking number by either calling in to our
offices or via the web. The following escalation takes place from the time a ticket is created:
The following escalation takes place from the time a ticket is created:
A case is opened with problem description entered into a problem resolution database, and assigned
to DSI Phone Duty technician
(Level 1 Expertise, see definitions below).

Discuss and set priorities with customer in accordance with DSI’ priority guidelines
(Defined below in the priority response time’s section).
For in warranty items, DSI will co-ordinate with the manufacturer on behalf of the customer to
deliver support conforming to the service level agreements.

Assign to available Technician, based on type of problem and severity.

Problem isolation and diagnosis with DSI Technician (Level of Expertise based on type of
problem) call back, on-site visit (if necessary).

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Problem escalation to higher level
(Defined below in escalation section).

Test and ensure customer satisfaction regarding fix provided.

Quality control check performed by customer service representative, to insure highest level of
customer satisfaction after a call is completed.
Technician Experience Levels
Level 1 - Desktop/LAN Technician: This type of engineer provides service and preventive
maintenance activities on products with element exchange service and traditional maintenance
philosophies. (i.e. terminals, printers, PC’s, laptops)
Abilities & Certifications:
 A+ Certification
 Tier 1 Certifications on minimum of one (1) on the following OEM’s (i.e. HP, IBM, Sun)
 Microsoft 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows7 knowledge
 Laser printer experience
 Basic client knowledge of Ethernet and Token Ring topologies
Level 2 - Junior Network Technician: This type of engineer has the ability to manage, control, and
operate centralized and distributed network systems in a multi-vendor environment. Some
applicable services would be installing network facilities, providing configuration and maintenance
support for network components.
 Server +, Network +
 Novell CNE
 Citrix CCA
 Cisco CCNA,CCDA
 HP/Compaq AASE
 Tape back-up knowledge
 Minimum of one (1) certification on the following, Compaq, HP, and IBM File Servers
Level 3 - Junior Network Engineer: This type of engineer designs a network system and
maintenance plan for that system.
 Novell MCNE
 Microsoft MCSE
 HP/Compaq ASE
 Citrix CCEA
 Cisco Authorized CCNP, CCDP, CCIP, CCSP, CCVP
 Can perform project management functions
January 31, 2012
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Level 4 – Senior Network Engineer: This type of engineer is an expert in Project Management,
designing and implementation of Firewall Security, LAN/WAN and Storage Solutions.
 PMI
 Cisco CCIE
 HP/Compaq Master ASE
 Check Point CCSE
 A designer or architect who can develop a solution for the customer’s networking system
needs.
Priority Response Times for Standard Hardware and Software Services
We have four levels of response times as listed below. Once a service requests is entered into the
Sage CRM, a priority level is assigned, depending on issue.
Priority Level
Priority 1
Priority 2
Priority 3
Priority 4
Service Description
P1 trouble calls are defined as a system outage that affects many employees and
prohibits production. These calls must be acknowledged within 15 minutes and
resolved within 2 - 4 hours.
P2 trouble calls are defined as a small-scale system outage affecting some
employees and not the entire department or the enterprise. These calls must be
acknowledged within 30 minutes and resolved within 8 hours. Department heads
receive a one level escalation for trouble calls.
P3 trouble calls are defined as a system outage affecting one employee. These calls
must be acknowledged within 2 working hours and resolved within 2 working
days.
P4 trouble calls are defined as scheduled work that needs to be performed. These
calls must be acknowledged within 8 working hours and resolved within 2 weeks.
An example of a priority 4 call is when DSI replaces a broken printer with a loaner
printer and we give the user back the fixed printer when the repair is complete.
Escalation Example for Priority 1
Below is an example of the escalation process for priority 1 level tickets
Duration
Since Personnel Involved in Escalation Notification
Call
0 – 15 minutes
DSI Phone Duty Technician (Level 1 or 2 Expertise) and Manufacturer Call Center
Service Technician
1 hour
DSI Lead Technician (Level 3 or 4 Expertise) and Manufacturer Service Manager
2 hours
DSI IT Manager and Manufacturer Operations Manager
4 - 6 hours
DSI Director of Operations and Manufacturer Vice President of Technical Support
8 hours
DSI COO
24 hours
Contracting Officer, DSI CEO, and Manufacturer President of Technical Support,
and Manufacturer Local Channel Account Manager
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Escalation Contacts
Trouble escalation procedures names, titles, and contact information for Priority 1 tickets are
provided below.
Elapsed Time
1 hour
2 hours
4 hours
8 hours
24 hours
Contact Name
Contact Title
Contact
Phone: (888-286-3896)
Nugroho Hadhiman Network Engineer
[email protected]
Varun Gulati
Senior Network Engineer [email protected]
Vijay Soni
Director of Operations
[email protected]
Vinu Luthra
COO
[email protected]
Atul Bhatia
CEO
[email protected]
Identifying Reoccurring Problems
The DSI Technical Department must provide monthly reports to the Chief Operating Officer
detailing the number of service calls, the technician assigned, the priority level assigned, the
escalation time period from entry to resolution, parts replaced, cost, and the resolution. In most
cases, a pattern of component failure will have been noticed by DSI and the manufacturer as service
calls for the same problem will be noticed on the report. Resolutions which will be communicated to
CCPA and sent to all customers who ordered the product might consist of a bios or software
upgrade, free replacement part, or entire product recall and replacement. To combat component
failures, DSI maintains a nationwide spare parts presence to limit product downtime. The following
shows how cases are tracked in the CRM software tool. Once the case is entered, DSI technical
support personnel track the progress of the case using Sage CRM.
January 31, 2012
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Once a case is closed, information describing how the case was resolved is kept on Sage CRM,
providing a store of knowledge that can be used to quickly resolve similar issues in the future.
2.3.4
Training
DSI provides a full range of learning systems, services and support, including course content
development, delivery, and materials. Our capabilities include evaluation, planning, development,
delivery and integration of systems, solutions, and technical support. Our training is always
focused on specific agency needs. Course outlines are used solely as a starting point. We value our
customers by listening to their concerns and analyzing their environment before designing any
training solution. Whether you want to solve a particular problem, learn about a specific feature or
just find out about the capabilities of a product, the training is tailored to you.
Information Technology Core Concepts Training Classes Available (Non-Inclusive):
Application Development and Programming
Application Development
Introduction to Programming Languages
MS WinNT Programming for UNIX Developers
Objects
Programming Fundamentals
-Visual Basic
Internet and Intranet Infrastructure
Desktop Operating Systems
Enterprise Operating Systems
Fundamentals
Internet and Intranet
Internet Research
Internetworking
Systems and Database Design
Data Analysis and Design
Data Management
Data Warehousing
Database Programming
ORDBMS
Computing for Beginners
Basic IT Concepts I
Basic IT Concepts II
Using the Computer
Information and Communication
PC Fundamentals: Components
PC Fundamentals: Software, Memory, and Storage
PC Fundamentals: Safety and Security
Palm OS
Wireless Networking Basics
Network Fundamentals
Managing Information Systems
Information Architecture
Process Management and Improvement
Software Management
January 31, 2012
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Outline Samples Information Technology Core Concepts for above listed Courses:
Network Fundamentals Outline
Introduction to networking
Introduction to networking
Computer network history
Benefits of using computer networks
Network design considerations
TCP/IP and the Internet
TCP/IP the Internet protocol suite
The Internet
Network management
Functional areas of network management
Daily network management responsibilities
Network strategies and topologies
Node connecting strategies
Network computing strategies
Network coverage
Network topologies
The future of networking
The future of networking
What next?
Network hardware
Network hardware components
Transmission media
Interface devices
Internetworking devices
Appendix A: Cabling specifications
Appendix B: Suggested reading list
Standards and protocols
Network standards
Network protocols
Differences between standards, protocols,
and protocol implementations
Network software
Network operating systems
Network applications
Introduction to the OSI model
An overview of the OSI model
How network layers communicate
Data transmission
Data transmission
Signaling •Switching strategies
Media access control (MAC)
Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Course Offerings
Microsoft Office 2007 Course Offerings
Microsoft Office 2007 Mini-Course Offerings
Microsoft Access 2007 Basics (3350R2)
Microsoft Access 2007 Intermediate (3359)
Microsoft Excel 2007 Basics (3351R3)
Microsoft Excel 2007 Intermediate (3361R3)
Microsoft Excel 2007 Advanced (3355)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Basics (3352R5)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Intermediate (3362R2)
Microsoft Word 2007 Basics (3349R2)
Microsoft Word 2007 Intermediate (3357)
Microsoft Word 2007 Advanced (3360R2)
Introduction to Office 2007 (3353R2)
Learning to use Outlook 2007 (3371NC)
Learning to Use Computers with Windows XP and Office 2007 (3372)
Learning to Use Computers with Vista and Office 2007 (3374)
Learning to Use Computers with Windows 7 and Office 2007 (3399Win7R)
Mini-Access 2007 Basics (3387)
Mini-Access 2007 Tables (3388)
Mini-Access 2007 Queries (3398)
Mini-Access 2007 Forms & Reports (3390)
Mini-Excel 2007 Basics (3380R)
Mini-Excel 2007 Formatting and Lists (3391R)
Mini-Excel 2007 Charts and PivotTables (3381R)
Mini-Excel 2007 Simple Formulas (3392R)
Mini-Word 2007 Basics (3373R)
Mini-Word 2007 Formatting (3378R2)
Mini-Word 2007 Forms & Merges (3379R)
Mini-Word 2007 Advanced Features (3386R2)
Microsoft Office 2010 Course Offerings
Microsoft Office 2010 Mini-Course Offerings
Microsoft Access 2010 Basics (3421Win7R)
Microsoft Access 2010 Intermediate (3422Win7)
Microsoft Excel 2010 Basics (3414Win7)
Microsoft Excel 2010 Intermediate (3415Win7)
Microsoft Excel 2010 Advanced (3417Win7)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Basics (3416Win7)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Intermediate (3419Win7)
Microsoft Word 2010 Basics (3412Win7)
Microsoft Word 2010 Intermediate (3420Win7)
Microsoft Word 2010 Advanced (3426Win7)
(12 to 18 hours duration)
Introduction to Office 2010 (3411Win7)
Learning to Use Computers with Office 2010 (3410Win7R)
Mini-Access 2010 Basics
Mini-Access 2010 Tables
Mini-Access 2010 Queries
Mini-Access 2010 Forms & Reports
Mini-Excel 2010 Basics (3318Win7)
Mini-Excel 2010 Formatting and Lists (3423Win7)
Mini-Excel 2010 Charts and PivotTables (3424Win7)
Mini-Excel 2010 Simple Formulas (3425Win7)
Mini-Word 2010 Basics (3413Win7)
Mini-Word 2010 Formatting
Mini-Word 2010 Forms & Merges
Mini-Word 2010 Advanced Features
January 31, 2012
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Staff Technician Certification
DSI can facilitate CCPA contract users with the manufacturers’ “Technician Certification Programs”
available for customer staff. Prices for these services will vary depending on criteria such as the
number of certified technicians the agency wants to have, the type of product and anticipated
purchase volume. For any agency interested in this service DSI will offer administrative support to
help research what types of programs are available, what requirements are needed, and what fees and
reimbursements there are.
Manufacturer Self-Maintenance programs provide the following benefits:
- Manufacturer hardware maintenance training (purchased separately by Customer)
- Discount on parts (for out-of-warranty products and spare part stocking)
- Warranty replacement parts for parts consumed during the product warranty
- Electronic warranty claims processing and parts ordering
- Electronic access to service information
- Toll-free remote troubleshooting assistance for backup support
- Labor reimbursements
2.3.5
Consulting
Project Management & Staff Augmentation Services
DSI has a wealth of expertise providing qualified people who can integrate easily into an
organization. Whether clients require full life cycle project management or staff augmentation,
DSI takes over the burden of finding quality personnel providing IT consultants that embody our
clients’ values.
DSI offers managed knowledge of the latest environment and technology needs including proving
compliance testing for HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and the Patriot Act. An example of DSI’s
capabilities and experience providing consulting and technical services include:
Application Systems Design
Configuration Services
Consulting
Data Center
Design/Implementation
Design/Development
Help Desk Support
Implementation Support
Maintenance Support
Needs Assessment
Network Design
Network Installation
Network Integration
Network Management
Project Management
Software Customization
Software Development
Systems Analysis
Systems Engineering
Systems Integration
Training
January 31, 2012
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2.3.6
Value Added Services
DSI provides the following types of value added services and support to the CCPA related to all
functional areas.
End-of-Life / Trade-in Options
The DSI Trade-In Program provides a total end-to-end solution for life cycle management on your
technology investments. We offer cash-back for any parts and systems that still have residual
value (typically within 3 1/2 years of age), and recycling services for hardware that has become
obsolete.
Our Trade-In Program has proven to be one of the most comprehensive tools to assist education
and government end-users to:
• Recover value from used or excess hardware
• Minimize excess inventory buildup
• Create a fresh bucket of money in their budget
• Provide environmentally friendly recycling services
• Logistical support for nationwide pickups
• Procurement channel to purchase any discontinued hardware requirements
We offer a fast, flexible, and responsive process, committed to the highest level of satisfaction.
We can customize a trade-in program specifically designed for CCPA’s requirements. Fees for this
service are dependent on number of products and will be provided on a quote basis from the
dedicated sales team. Additionally, many manufacturers have their own recycling programs which
include money saving trade-in offers.
For any manufacturer trade-in program, DSI will assist CCPA in all aspects of potential equipment
trade-in. When an agency desires to replace old equipment, DSI should be notified regarding the
equipment to be replaced and the serial numbers of the parts in question. DSI will then work with
the manufacturer to determine the fair market value of the equipment being traded-in. DSI will
help facilitate all aspects of the trade-in process, including coordination of return merchandise
authorizations and shipping information.
Disposal Services
DSI provides an environmentally friendly, safe, and secure method for recycling hardware that no
longer has residual value. This service offers transportation, recycling, and asset management
reports, along with certificates of destruction that meet all state, local, and federal EPA guidelines.
Some of the feature and requirements of DSI recycling program include:
• DSI will coordinate transportation logistics from customer facility to recycling center for
hardware that is properly palletized and loading dock accessible.
• Hardware will be received, audited, bar coded and de-manufactured. Hard drives are
removed, secured / shredded. Plastic, metal, glass, and boards are disassembled.
• Certificates of de-manufacturing which meet environmental compliance issued.
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• Fees for this service are dependent on the type and number of items being recycled and
will be provided on a quote basis from the dedicated sales team.
• Minimum quantity requirements of 50 units.
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program
DSI understands that the purchase and use of environmentally preferable products can have a
profound impact–and not just on the environment. Buying less-hazardous products can reduce
regulatory liability, improve worker safety, and lower disposal costs. This includes Mercury
content research and documentation to provide compliance with Mercury standards published by
the State for all products.
Environmentally preferable products are defined as products that have a lesser or reduced effect on
human health and the environment when compared with competing products that serve the same
purpose. DSI will work with all manufacturer products we resell, to identify environmentally
preferable products that are manufactured with less toxic materials; are designed for recycling;
contain recycled material in plastic housings or other parts; and are shipped in recycled or reduced
packaging.
Specialized Manufacturer Web Access
Through DSI and the support of the manufacturer, CCPA agencies will have access to sales and
marketing tools, product pricing, software patches and more which can be provided to customers
who wish to request product information and configure network equipment on their own. This
access is performed through Manufacturer’s applicable program any may not be available from
some.
DSI will facilitate the following types of manufacturer online tool support as applicable the
manufacturer offering:






Software Download Center - Includes access to downloadable software updates, the Software
Bug Toolkit, software release notes, and other software information.
Technical Support Knowledge Base - Provides assistance with complex technical questions.
Lead Times Tool - Allows users to view product lead times.
Configuration Tool - Interactive tool to create product configurations for Manufacturer
products and then forward the configurations via email.
Pricing Tool - Enables users to check the current retail price list to view their cost savings via
the contract vehicle.
Order Status Tool - Allows a user to see the status of their orders their Partner has placed on
their behalf.
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Help Desk Support
Help Desk Support for products purchased through DSI. CCPA can call DSI’ toll-free number
during normal business hours and any time thereafter to receive technical support. After hours
support requires selecting the emergency option number on the voice greeting and leaving a
message. The message is relayed via pager to a DSI technician who will call back within one
hour.
Warranty Status Tracking
DSI can provide free warranty status reporting for purchases made under this contract. In brief this
would include electronically tracking each product purchased, the date received, the standard
warranty time, and any additional warranty upgrades purchased. Information can be provided the
Requesting Agency in a variety of reporting mediums and frequencies.
Documentation
During the term of the contract, DSI can provide a supply of descriptive literature to CCPA
member agencies considering the purchase of any contract equipment. This descriptive literature
would include the glossy, marketing type literature, product brochures, CD-ROM tutorials and
product configurations. The Outside Sales Rep assigned to call on the CCPA can bring product
updates with them on visits. This information can also be requested from the CCPA dedicated
account rep. All products shipped will include standard product manuals or CD-Rom based
documentation, which, if missing, may also be obtained through the Sales Team.
New and Refurbished Equipment
DSI does not sell refurbished equipment. When effecting repairs of products, refurbished
equipment and materials may be used to replace or repair defective products. Any
reconditioned/refurbished products replaced in this manner will be warranted with the same terms
as new materials and with the warranty length as per current commercial practice of the
manufacturer.
Complete Configuration and Delivery
All equipment purchased under this agreement will be configured with, and delivered with, all
required cables, keys (if applicable), License Keys, documentation, proof of all software licenses
(if applicable), and appropriate media. DSI already performs this service for current customers
who purchase items and components off the current contracts held by DSI. DSI normally
performs this function in-house in order to test and deliver the equipment according to
manufacturer specifications as well as customer expectations. However, in most cases we can
provide installation of components at a customer’s site or have the items configured prior to them
shipping from the manufacturer. Many products ordered will already have the option of being
configured to customer specifications prior to ordering.
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Compatibility
All peripherals and components configured and ordered with a system will be compatible with that
system. DSI tests all installed equipment prior to delivery to ensure that all components ordered
are working properly.
Manufacturer Approved Components
All components will be manufacturer approved, unless otherwise noted, and therefore, eligible for
full manufacturer’s warranty. DSI works very closely with the manufacturer to ensure any parts
installed in a machine do not void the manufacturer warranty. In cases where a customer requests
installation of an item that is not approved by the manufacturer, DSI will not install the component
without customer’s approval.
Labeling
All items offered will be the same model indicated by its external label and source of manufacture.
This will be verified by DSI in the staging area prior to shipment.
Operable Peripherals/Adaptors
All software and/or necessary drivers related to peripherals and/or adaptors, will be installed and
operational prior to time of delivery. DSI normally performs this function in-house in order to test
and deliver the equipment according to customer specifications. However, in some cases we can
provide installation of components at a customer’s site or have the items configured prior to them
shipping from the manufacturer. Many products ordered will already have the option of being
configured to customer specifications prior to ordering.
Information Regarding New Products
Emerging Technology Training
DSI can provide CCPA with emerging technology training in a variety of ways such as providing
training/informative sessions for new product/technology releases, product brochure updates,
interactive training CD-ROM tutorials, and web based training and demo equipment. Rather than
CCPA paying for shipping or labor cost to obtain knowledge through these types of resources,
DSI and our manufacturer partners can provide them free of charge. This provides the ability to
learn about the latest technology as well as see if a product will meet the needs of the customer
without them having to spend any money first.
Lab Equipment and Road Shows
DSI can provide access to products in our technical lab as well as manufacturer partner sites.
Many manufacturers have annual "road shows" where they display all of the latest product
releases and invite resellers and education and government purchasers to learn about the new
product features. DSI emails customers who have agreed to remain our mailing list when these
types of events come around.
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Notification of Withdrawal of Support
The DSI Sales Team is required to re-certify in all major brand product lines every 6 months. All
Sales Team Leaders must be certified in Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and IBM depending on
the contract and customer base they are responsible for. DSI sales staff attends a minimum of one
training per month for various manufacturers such as Sony, 3Com, etc. Because of this, DSI is
continually aware of products that are coming out and products that are being discontinued.
Each month DSI is sent updated newsletters that inform us as to what promotions are offered, as
well as what products are being discontinued. DSI has a Promotions Department responsible for
ensuring that all of the information communicated in these manufacturer monthly newsletters is
forwarded to the DSI Operational Departments. Information is sent to the Sales Department
(whom normally has already received the newsletter from the manufacturer directly) so they will
be able to inform their customers. Information is also sent to the Marketing Department so e-mail
blasts can be sent out to customers in our database. In this way, all of our current customers are
informed of changes in product availability and “trade-in” or “trade-up” of existing equipment
promotions. Product information regarding “end-of-life” projections for product-lines is
communicated to avoid delay in customer orders.
If pre-arranged by a CCPA contract user, DSI can track warranty information for products
purchased through DSI via this contract vehicle and provide notice to customers at least 12 months
prior to the withdrawal of support for any equipment following the initial warranty period.
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Online Configuration Tools
DSI can provide a secure website with catalog downloads, online configuration tools, technical
specification sheets, and online ordering. The following is an example of some of the
configuration sites DSI can provide links to so customers can configure products in order to
review product offerings prior to the creation of a quote request.
Memory Configurator
Exabyte
http://www.apcc.com/sizing/selectors.cfm
Fellowes Configurator
Axiom Upgrade Configurator
HP Enterprise Configurator
Belkin Configurator
IBM Server Configuration Tools
BTI Configurator
Iomega Configurator
Cables to Go Configurator
Kingston Memory Configurator
Cisco Configurator
Olympus Configurator
CMS Hard Drive and Backup System Configurator
PNY Configurator
SimpleTech Configurator
Corsair Memory Configurator
SMART Configurator
D-Link Configurator
UPS Selector Guide
RBC Configurator
Surge Configurator
Cables Configurator
Edge Memory Configurator
Enterasys Product Finder
Verbatim Toner Search
January 31, 2012
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2.3.7
Manufacturer’s Extended Warranty
Additional Types of Warranties Available
DSI is offering the standard manufacturer’s warranty on all products purchased. There are three
basic types of additional warranties that can be purchased from the manufacturer via DSI.
Warranty Extensions
Warranty extensions lengthen the original warranty (e.g., from one year to three on-site) by
simply extending coverage beyond the term specified by the original manufacturer
warranty. Customers typically need to buy warranty extensions at the time of product
purchase or within 90 days thereof.
Warranty Upgrades
Warranty upgrades lift the original manufacturer's warranty response time to a higher level
(e.g. from next business day on-site to 24/7 on-site), ensuring a faster response than the
standard warranty. For example, customers could choose to upgrade from next-businessday response to same-day response. To extend service availability hours from daytime
hours to round-the-clock, customers may opt for warranty upgrades. Remote notebook
support is also available.
Post-Warranty
Post-warranties support the equipment after the original manufacturer's warranty has
expired; usually contracted for one year. Products that are no longer covered by
manufacturer warranties can still be covered by post-warranty maintenance service
contracts. Single-manufacturer and multi-manufacturer contracts are available.
Maintenance contracts are sold as separate services.
DSI understands many customers find that they will retain their equipment for much longer
than the normal product life cycle (usually three years). Customers that opt to keep
purchased equipment in service for a longer period of time will have an adequate
maintenance/service option for CCPA based customers.
(a) DSI will provide the option to extend warranty coverage for any item purchased under
this contract beyond the initial warranty period.
(b) Customer will purchase Post Warranty Maintenance before the expiration of the prior
warranty (to assure that equipment is in good working order).
(c) Post Warranty Maintenance will be available and renewable on an annual basis, per
unit.
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Warranty Support Options
Optional warranties, which extend beyond the standard warranty, can be purchased via
manufacturer packaged services or hourly rates. The following is a non-inclusive list of
warranty support packages offered by most manufacturers with their products.
 Next Day Express Exchange
 Next Day Onsite Response
 7 Day, Next Day Onsite Response
 4-Hour Onsite, Standard Hours Response
 4-Hour Onsite, Extended Hours Response
 Advanced Maintenance Service, Next Day Onsite Response
 Advanced Maintenance Service, 4-Hour Onsite Response
 Accidental-Damage Protection, Next Day Exchange
 Return to Manufacturer
 Return to Local Service Center
 Post Warranty Service, Exchange
 Post Warranty Service, Onsite Response
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3. Background and Experience
3.1 Official Name
DISYS Solutions, Inc. is not owned by another firm:
Legal Company
Name
Address of Company
State of
Incorporation
DISYS Solutions, Inc.
Chantilly, VA 20151
Virginia
DSI has assembled a team of partners and subcontractors to provide a comprehensive line of
products and services to the City of Charlotte and CCPA Contract Users. The list below shows some
of these partners and provides a short description of the services they will be providing:
Company Name
Delex Systems, Inc.
Arrow Electronics, Inc.
Website
www.delex.com
www.ecs.arrow.com
Services Provided
Unified Security Solutions
Arrow FUSION Cloud Services
Server and Network Infrastructure Solutions
Helpdesk Support
Consulting Services
Terremark
www.terremark.com
Infrastructure and Cloud: Colocation,
Enterprise Cloud, Managed Hosting,
Network & Connectivity, IT Professional
Services.
Total Site Solutions
CPI Training Solutions,
Inc.
Security Services: Governance, Risk and
Compliance Management; Identity and
Access Management; Data Protection;
Management Security
www.totalsitesolutions.com Complete Data Center Services and
Technology Consulting Services
www.solutionsrus.com
Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Training
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DSI Distribution Channel
DSI’s distribution channel method provides timely product delivery nationwide by utilizing its
partnerships with Synnex Technologies, Ingram Micro, Tech Data, HP Direct, IBM Direct, Cisco
Direct, and other manufacturers and distributors to provide products. DSI considers fill rate and ontime delivery to be synonymous. If an item is not delivered within the expected timeframe required
by the contract or customer, it reflects negatively on our fill rate. DSI choice to use a vast resource of
distributors and manufacturers combines strengths in manufacturing, distribution, and electronic
commerce, and offers greater efficiencies in time to market, cost, and real-time links in the supply
chain. DSI’s distribution channel choices brings product procurement and manufacturing expertise
together which results in the highest quality products built with industry-leading components being
delivered in the least amount of time at the most current costs at time of shipment. Our online
ordering tools and resources allow us to see availability and pricing at all of our distributor partners
as well as other online resources. This allows us to ensure our fill rate remains above 99% at the
lowest acquisition cost. Online features also allow us to track shipment status and communicate
unforeseen delays immediately. Additionally DSI uses SAGE CRM software to manage and
synchronize sales, purchasing and customer care activities across all points of contact to ensure
adherence to deliverable timeframes. The tables below provides the distribution warehouse locations
of our three main distribution partners:
Distribution Center Locations US (non-inclusive)
Distribution Center Locations
Locations for Synnex Technologies
Distribution Centers And Shipping Locations
Virginia
California
California
3900 Stonecroft Blvd. Suite M
21950 Arnold Center Road
44201 Nobel Drive
Chantilly, VA 20151
Carson, CA 90810
Fremont, CA 94538
703-961-0432
310-549-0000
510-656-3333
California
Florida
Georgia
3655 E. Philadelphia St.
11190 NW 25th Street
200 Best Friend Ct., Suite 250
Ontario, CA 91761
Miami, FL 33172
Norcross, GA 30071
909-923-8900
786-464-1990
800-544-3584
Illinois
Mississippi
New Jersey
1850 International Blvd.
10381 Stateline Rd
1000 Riverside Drive, Suite A
Glendale Heights, IL 60139
Olive Branch, MS 38654
Keasbey, NJ 08832
630-588-8772
662-892-5100
732-661-0032
Ohio
Oregon
South Carolina
4001 Gantz Road, Suite A
6505 SW 110th Avenue
39 Pelham Ridge Dr.
Grove City, OH 43123
Beaverton, OR 97008
Greenville, SC 29615
614-539-6995
503-645-8188
864-289-4000
Texas
660 N. Dorothy Dr., #100
Richardson, TX 75081
800-544-3613
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California - Branch 10
12510 Micro Drive
Mira Loma, CA 91752
909-727-3300
Locations for Tech Data
Florida
Georgia
2200 NW 112th Avenue
3055 Shawnee Ind. Parkway
Miami, FL 33172
Suwanee, GA 30024
305-599-4799
727-539-7429
New Jersey
Texas
1 Technology Drive
5100 Liberty Way
Swedesboro, NJ 08085
Alliance Gateway Park
727-539-7429
Ft. Worth, TX 76177
727-539-7429
Locations for Ingram Micro
Illinois - Branch 40
Pennsylvania - Branch 80
415 E. Lies Road
80 Micro Drive
Carol Stream, IL 60188
Jonestown, PA 17038
630-668-0106
717-865-0800
Tennessee - Branch 30
3820 Micro Drive
Millington, TN 38053
901-873-8800
Texas - Branch 20
1809 W. Frankford Rd., Ste 100
Carrollton, TX 75007
972-512-2700
California
13472 Marlay
Fontana, CA 92337
727-539-7429
Indiana
7701 Vorden Court
South Bend, IN 46628
727-539-7429
3.2 Service Provider Background
3.2.1
Company Overview
DSI is a Small Minority Owned business with over 20 years of experience providing state, local,
and education agencies with computer hardware, servers, peripherals, software, network
management services, and integration services. DSI is headquartered in Chantilly, VA. We have
over 60 employees working across the country to meet the demands of our customers. Our
clientele covers Government and Educational Institutions and Commercial clients nationwide. We
are a financially sound company who recycles profits back into the firm in areas such as research
and development. DSI employs a talented staff of remote and on-site sales, marketing,
administrative, human resources, accounting, consultants, software analysts, network engineers,
and service technician personnel nationwide.
DSI provides knowledge and know-how relative to recommendations for the purchasing of
hardware and software in light of rapidly changing technology market trends and conditions. DSI
procurement methodologies support organization-wide procurement strategies and systems to
procure IT assets effectively. Part of making procurement decisions includes recommendations for
action, advice on negotiating tactics, knowledge of contract terms & conditions as well as primary
and secondary market pricing trends and financing alternatives. DSI provides products and support
for all types of equipment from servers, desktops, and printers to audio-visual equipment, routers
and hubs. DSI has a highly qualified staff of Certified Sales Representatives and Network
Engineers which provide pre and post-sales product support, warranty, integration services, and
more.
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Government and Education Focus
DSI is an experienced value added reseller who provides free value added services with every
product and service we provide. Since 1994, our core market focus has been providing information
technology products and services to government and education agencies nationwide. DSI
understands the unique computing requirements of Government and Education agencies. DSI
knows to stay in business we need to provide a level of support far superior than our competitors.
We have unique record of winning term contracts in the State, Local, and Education market.
Technology Procurement and Integration
DSI provides knowledge and know-how relative to recommendations for the purchasing of
hardware and software in light of rapidly changing technology market trends and conditions.
DISYS procurement methodologies support organization-wide procurement strategies and systems
to effectively procure IT assets. Part of making procurement decisions includes recommendations
for action, advice on negotiating tactics, knowledge of contract terms & conditions as well as
primary and secondary market pricing trends and financing alternatives. DISYS provides products
and support for all types of equipment from servers, desktops, and printers to audio-visual
equipment, routers and hubs. DISYS has a highly qualified staff of Certified Sales Representatives
and Network Engineers which provide pre and post-sales product support, warranty, integration
services, and more. In order to offer outstanding product services, DISYS must maintain
partnerships with world leading hardware and software technology companies such as:
Partnership status requires DISYS have manufacturer certified sales and engineers on staff, high
customer service standards, positive past performance, and industry standard practices. Some of
DISYS highest partner levels include being a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, and a Hewlett Packard
(HP) Gold Partner with specializations in Wireless LAN, VPN Security, and IP Telephony
products and services. In return for our dedication we are provided with service, technical support,
productivity tools, online training, marketing resources and sales promotions which we in turn
share with our clients.
Technology Deployment and Migration
DISYS provides senior level engineers to evaluate emerging wireless technologies, develop
technology migration paths, and create deployment plans that help clients make the best strategic
decisions. Understanding network topology, protocols and operating systems allows us to provide
our clients with network design, implementation and performance analysis. Additionally, we
support high and low end network backup tools, fault tolerance modules, and disaster recovery
processes. DISYS maintains a large staff of advanced and mid-level CISCO, HP, Microsoft and
Novell administrators ready to help our clients. Technologies supported include SAN/NAS, VoIP,
and Wireless LAN/WAN.
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Project Management & Staff Augmentation Services
DISYS has a wealth of expertise providing qualified people who can integrate easily into an
organization. Whether clients require full life cycle project management or staff augmentation,
DISYS takes over the burden of finding quality personnel. DISYS provides IT consultants that
embody our clients’ values. Our methodology and processes allow us to offer:
• An extensive proprietary database of local candidates to guarantee a ready supply of IT
professionals.
• A seasoned IT savvy recruiting team that comprehends technology providing faster turnaround time in identifying target candidates for our clients’ IT staffing needs.
• A Strong Bench.
• A speed-to-hire center of expertise for pipelining various IT staff augmentation skills that
align with client needs. This enables us to not only utilize our bench consultants for various
projects, but also allows us to have a consistent pipeline of candidates for our speed-to-hire
process.
• Formalized processes to insure recruiting best practices are adhered to at all times.
• Candidates with satisfactory background checks, work references, and drug testing.
DISYS brings our clients a vast amount of industry knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned
using our past experience providing services to various Fortune 100+ rated companies in
industries including Aerospace and Defense, Biotechnology, Broadcasting and Cable, Building
Technologies, Capital Goods, Chemicals, Communications Equipment, Consumer Products,
Electronics, Environmental & Waste Management, Financial, Healthcare, Industrial Automations,
Information Technology, Internet Security, Medical Devices, Metals, Movies and Home
Entertainment, Petrochemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Power/Energy, Telecommunications, Testing
and Measurement, and Transportation.
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Customer Satisfaction
DSI has been a proud member of the Open Ratings report provided by Dun and Bradstreet for
many years. This report is run on prospering supplier businesses with regards to past performance
evaluation. DSI has consistently score above 90% on our Open Ratings reviews. Please see below
for the ratings from our most current report:
January 31, 2012
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Customer Satisfaction Excellence Recognition
One of our core capabilities is providing Cisco products and services. Although this RFP does not
request those products or services, we would like to reference our consistently high ratings from
customers to whom we have provided these products and services. Cisco conducts regular
independent reviews on their Gold partners. DSI has consistently received accolades for achieving
Customer Satisfaction Excellence – the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco
Partner Program.
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3.2.2
Organization and Ownership
The chart below shows our overall organizational structure.
Management Support
DSI’s principals oversee 100% of business operations. The owners are directly involved in
personally overseeing the day-to-day activities so that their ideas and philosophies related to
customer service and business growth remain the focus of each employee. The division of
responsibility among DSI’s principals is listed below:
Atul Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer, oversees the financial related business operations such as
accounting, purchasing and human resources. He ensures our internal business practices achieve a
solid company profit while maintaining cost savings to customers and ethical accounting
practices.
Vinu Luthra, Chief Operating Officer, oversees the success of DSI customer service by ensuring
all DSI technology product and services contracts include a staff of sales and engineering
personnel that possess above standard customer service skills and knowledge of current and
emerging technologies.
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Our owners stay abreast of technology changes and serve as mentors for the staff they manage. Each
major business unit of DSI is led by an industry seasoned Department Manager who reports directly
to one of the principal owners. The most common meetings take place between the Sales and
Technical Departments who work closely to coordinate orders with installation rollout schedules,
and the Sales and Purchasing Departments who work closely to ensure orders are delivered on time
and customers are made aware immediately as to possible delays. Every week, the Chief Operating
Officer meets with the department managers in an open forum to share positive and negative issues
which may affect the business in the coming weeks, and discuss tactics for assisting each other in
maintaining the health of the organization.
3.2.3 Experience with Similar Projects
DSI has numerous contracts providing similar technology products and associated services projects.
Please see below for an example of contracts on which we have provided technology hardware and
services:
Agency
Maryland Department of
Information Technology
(DOIT)
(DOIT)
University Systems of
Maryland (MEEC)
Virginia Information
Technologies Agency
(VITA)
Pennsylvania Education
Purchasing Program for
Microcomputers (PEPPM)
Eligible Customers
Type of Products
Contract Length
Any Education and
Government Agency in
MD
Any Education and
MD
Any Education and
MD
Any Education and
VA
Any of the 700+ members
of the PEPPM cooperative
Microcomputers, Printers, Network
Communication Equipment and Services
1996-Current
Commercial of the Shelf Software and
Services
2000-Current
Microcomputer Hardware, PCs, Laptops,
Servers, and related Peripherals
1997-Current
Catalog of all DSI products via eVA
procurement site
2000-Current
Provide catalog of Audio Visual, General
Hardware and Software, Educational
Software, and Networking and
Telecommunications Products
Contract to provide Hewlett Packard
Printers, Supplies and Accessories to
Higher Education Entities nationwide
IT Hardware and Associated Equipment
2005-Current
Educational and Institutional
Cooperative Service, Inc
(E&I)
Miami-Dade County Florida
Any Higher Education
Agency Nationwide that is
a E&I Member
Miami-Dade County
Government Agencies
Atlanta Public Schools (APS)
All APS Locations
IT Consulting Services
2009-Current
Mississippi Department of
Services
Oregon Department of
Administrative Services
Any Education and
MS
Any Education and
OR
Any Education and
PA
Computer & Telephone Hardware,
Software, and Services
2009-2010
Statewide Contract to sell multiple brands
of peripherals based in DSI’s catalog
2004-2010
IT Hardware and Peripherals
2008-2009
Pennsylvania Department of
General Services (DGS)
January 31, 2012
2004-2010
2009-Current
41
Agency
Wisconsin Department of
Administration, Bureau of
Procurement
Texas Department of
Information Resources (DIR)
Fauquier County
Government, Virginia
New York Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
(MTA)
Virginia Community College
System (VCCS)
(DOIT)
Prince Georges County
Government (PGCG),
Maryland
Eligible Customers
Type of Products
Contract Length
Any Education and
WI
Any Education and
TX
All Fauquier County
Government Agencies
Statewide Peripherals contract to sell
entire DISYS catalog
2005-2010
Networking Products including 3Com,
Allied Telesyn, D-Link, IMC, Linksys,
MultiTech, Netgear and SMC.
IT Consulting Services
2006-2010
All-Agencies
Supply and Delivery of PC Peripherals
2009-Current
VCCS System Office and
twenty-three community
colleges on an “as
needed” basis
Any Education and
MD
All PCGC Government
Agencies
Computer Hardware, Software and
Services
2008-Current
Telecommunications Equipment and
Services (PBX III)
2011-Current
Desktop Printers, COT Software, and
Associated Peripherals
2009-2011
2011-Current
3.3 Proposing Organization’s Structure
a. Describe your total organization, including any parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and
other related entities;
DSI is a privately owned corporation. We do not have any parent companies, subsidiaries,
affiliates, or other related entities.
b. Describe the ownership structure of your organization, including any significant or controlling
equity holders;
DSI is a privately owned corporation with 2 principals:
 Atul Bhatia – Chief Executive Officer –44.4 % ownership share
 Vinu Luthra - Chief Operating Officer – 44.4% ownership share
 Maruf Ahmed – Shareholder - 11.2% ownership share
DSI three principals oversee 100% of business operations. The significance of all the owners
being directly involved in personally overseeing the day-to-day activities of the company is that
their ideas and philosophies related to customer service and business growth, remain the focus of
each employee.
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c. Provide a management organization chart of your overall organization, showing director and
officer positions and names and the reporting structure. Provide detailed information for the
Technology Products and Associated Services business segments of your organization, showing
the reporting structures within these segments and among these segments and the overall
organization;
The chart below shows our organizational structure as it relates to this procurement. Our overall
Organization Chart with personnel names has been provided in Section 4.2.2 above.
d. Describe any organizational changes such as divestitures, acquisitions, or spin-offs involving
such business segments that have occurred in the latest two (2) years or are anticipated in the
future.
DISYS Solutions, Inc was incorporated in Virginia on 05/20/2010. We were previously part of
Digital Intelligence Systems Corp. (DISYS) – incorporated June 23, 1994 – and recently
transitioned as a new entity DISYS Solutions, Inc. This change is effective as of June 11, 2010.
Digital Intelligence Systems Corp. (DISYS) has separated its State, Local and Education division
from its Consulting division. The State, Local and Education (SLED) division will operate under
a new company, DISYS Solutions Inc. As a part of this move, the entire DISYS SLED team
consisting of team leaders, inside sales staff, technical and support staff has transitioned to
DISYS Solutions, Inc.
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3.4 Analytic Approach
DSI understands these requirements and will provide the required information to the City as
requested.
3.5 Guarantor
DSI is a privately owned independent company and will act as our own guarantor for this contract
3.6 Financial Information
DSI understands this requirement and will provide the required information, without exception, within
24-hours upon request. DISYS is a private company and considers our financial statements
confidential under the Federal Freedom of Information Act section 5 U.S.C. §552(b)(4). As such,
financial information is kept with our corporate principals only. Any information requested will be
provided directly from our Chief Operating Officer, Vinu Luthra. If this information is provided,
please take care to keep this information confidential and use it only for internal purposes to determine
vendor suitability.
3.7 Proposed Project Team
DSI is teaming with some partners on this proposal – however, we are unable to estimate the
percentage of services that will be provided by these team members as this is an IDIQ contract.
Please see the following table for a brief list of teaming partners with DSI with a brief description of
the services they will be providing.
Company Name
Delex Systems, Inc.
Arrow Electronics, Inc.
Website
www.delex.com
www.ecs.arrow.com
Terremark
www.terremark.com
Total Site Solutions
CPI Training Solutions,
Inc.
Services Provided
Unified Security Solutions
Arrow FUSION Cloud Services
Server and Network Infrastructure Solutions
Helpdesk Support
Consulting Services
Infrastructure and Cloud: Colocation,
Enterprise Cloud, Managed Hosting,
Network & Connectivity, IT Professional
Services.
Security Services: Governance, Risk and
Compliance Management; Identity and
Access Management; Data Protection;
Management Security
www.totalsitesolutions.com Complete Data Center Services and
Technology Consulting Services
www.solutionsrus.com
Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Training
January 31, 2012
44
3.8 Past of Pending Judgments
DSI has no past or pending criminal, civil or administrative litigation any or within the past five (5)
years nor are there any cases pending against DSI.
3.9 Financial and Legal Considerations
DSI understands this requirement and will provide the required information, without exception, within
24-hours upon request.
3.10
Management Approach
3.10.1 Customer Service Philosophy
DSI’s customer service philosophy starts from the top down. Our owners are involved in the dayto-day operations of our company. The significance of all the owners being directly involved in
personally overseeing the day-to-day activities is that their ideas and philosophies related to
customer service and business growth, remain the focus of each employee. DSI has built a large
clientele of satisfied customers due to the successful implementation of its owner’s philosophies
and procedures, which make up our Management Plan.
The impact of all of our owners being directly involved in the business is, that even though we
experienced significant growth, the focus and philosophy of providing goods and services with
the utmost concern for customer service, is an integral part of every action throughout the
company. The focus of our owners has always been to provide excellent customer service.
Customer satisfaction sets us apart from our competition. We work with our clients through such
issues as duplicate/incorrect shipments, erroneous configurations, inaccurate pricing,
incompatible products, etc. The DSI customer service team is dedicated to solving problems that
arise on an unexpected basis. The department has been trained to handle problems/inquiries in
conjunction with all vendors represented by our company. In addition, all sales and technical
support personnel have been trained in customer service. Sales Team members who consistently
do not follow DSI sales processes in the required time frame are reprimanded up to and including
termination. DSI expects all staff members to share in our dedicated customer service
philosophy. This ensures that all customer-related issues will be handled in the shortest time and
most effective manner possible. DSI dedication to customer service will ensure that all aspects
of service for customers are met and exceeded.
ITIL Methodology
DSI also provides seamless customer service by using a project management tool/philosophy
called ITIL. DSI is compliant with all ITIL strategies and methodologies. ITIL is the most
complete, and globally accepted “methodology” or “library” for delivering IT services across the
country.
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3.10.2 Total Quality Plan
Quality Management Methodology
DSI has adopted a Quality Management Methodology (QMM) because we are dedicated to
providing solutions that focus on helping our customers meet or exceed their mission and
achieve their goals. As a national Information Technology Product & Service Provider, we are
committed to consistently meeting or exceeding our customers’ requirements and expectations of
the products and services we deliver.
Quality Objectives
DSI uses customer feedback to continually improve the usefulness of the solutions we deliver.
The following quality objectives were developed to assist us in meeting our goal:
 Quality Products
 Timeliness of Performance
 Cost Control
 Sound Business Relations
 Overall Customer Satisfaction
 Effective Subcontractor Management.
Our objectives are measured during our Customer Satisfaction Assessment (CSA) process and
reviewed at regular intervals by Top Management at formal management reviews. Top
management communicates the importance of meeting the customer requirements to all
employees and ensures the availability of the necessary resources to implement the QMM.
Quality Control
DSI Quality Control includes but is not limited to the following activities:
 In order to ensure adherence to contractual requirements, business meetings and other
reviews are held, as required, during contract performance.
 Contract requirements are assessed to ensure (1) customer requirements are adequately
defined; (2) statutory and regulatory requirements are identified and evaluated; (3) DSI
has the in-house capability to satisfy the technical requirements. When in-house
capability is not available, DSI can acquire external resources such as a subcontractor,
associate, or consultant to satisfy the technical, cost and schedule requirements. The
review is performed prior to submission of a quote or proposal.
 For each customer order, documented Order Processing Guidelines are followed which
define and document how the customer’s requirements are to be satisfied. This plan is
documented in a format that allows electronic transfer for timely action.
 Purchasing procedures and guidelines ensure that supplies, materials or services, which
are purchased by DSI, conform to specified requirements. Evaluation and re-evaluation
of suppliers, associate contractors, and consultants are widely used by DSI to add value,
as well as, augment the company’s support service capability. DSI evaluates, re-evaluates
and selects subcontractors, associates, and consultants on the basis of their ability to meet
subcontract requirements.
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
To ensure calls are actually handled according to their purchased or requested level of
support, DSI uses an online system to track and automatically escalate calls to someone
more senior. DSI currently uses SAGE® Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Software Program for all of our Service Requests. The following is an excerpt from other
parts of the proposal outlining escalation.
Problem Correction
DSI emphasizes the use of problem correction to determine the actual cause of nonconformances (including customer complaints, nonconforming products, and nonconforming
processes) to prevent their recurrence in the following ways:
 Effective handling of customer complaints and reports of product nonconformity
 Investigation of the root cause of nonconformity relating to product, process, and
recording the results of the investigation
 Corrective Actions are recorded on Corrective Action Requests (CARs)
 Determination of the corrective action needed to eliminate the cause of nonconformity
 Application of controls to ensure that corrective action is taken and that it is effective.
Order turnaround time
The following are two examples of how DSI uses the SAGE CRM system to track and escalate
orders and requests. See “Order processing and routing” above for specific steps and days to
process orders from start to finish.
Sales Call Escalation Procedures for Order Entry
3 hours for Sales Rep
2 hours for any team member assigned
6 hours for Contract Administrator
9 hours for COO
12 hours for CEO
Total hours: 12
Note: Sales Rep will have 3 hours to close the ticket. They can assign this ticket to anyone
in their group. They will receive a notification on the 2rdhour. Assigned person will have
2 hours to finish the ticket. Contract Administrator will receive the ticket (escalation) on
the 6th hour, COO on 9th and CEO on 12th.
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Sales Call Escalation Procedures for Quotes
1 hour for Sales Rep
.50 hours for any team member assigned
2 hours for Team Leader
4 hours for Contract Administrator
9 hours for COO
12 hours for CEO
Total hours: 12
Note: POS will have a longer escalation timeframe since most will have due dates at
least a week out. Once awarded a contract an escalation schedule will be implemented.
Sales Rep will have 1 hour to close the ticket. They can assign this ticket to anyone in
their group. They will receive a notification on the half hour. Assigned person will have
thirty minutes to finish the ticket. Team Leader will receive the ticket (escalation) on the
2nd hour. Contract Administrator will receive the ticket (escalation) on the 4th hour,
COO on 9th and CEO on 12th.
The Result
While availability issues come up due to many factors, DSI has made sure that we have
procedures set in place to ensure delivery requirements are met or exceeded. On all of the
contracts that we have been a Prime Contractor or Sub Contractor, we have not failed to maintain
a delivery schedule for the majority of our customers. Our primary goal is going beyond to meet
the needs and goals of our customers no matter how small or large their orders are. DSI intends
to continue to perform according to proper business principles and ethics, in effect offering the
best value to Contract Agency.
3.10.3 Continuous Improvement Program
Continuous Improvement Program
In order to stay in business and be profitable, DSI must continuously improve our processes and
capabilities. We set measurable goals and review our processes for continuous improvement. We
review our internal data on a quarterly basis, generate internal reports, prepare action plans for
improvement, as well as assess improvement needs. DSI utilizes our Quality Management
Methodology and Contract Management Processes to continuously improve the usefulness of
solutions we deliver. We constantly aim to improve the quality of products we offer, to control
our costs, enhance timeliness of delivery, and achieve customer satisfaction.
DSI continuously seeks customer feedback so that we can improve our processes and quality of
our deliverables. Our owners and Top Management review are objectives and conduct Customer
Satisfaction Assessment (CSA) at regular intervals in order to ensure that we meet our goals. Top
management communicates the importance of meeting the customer requirements to all
employees and ensures the availability of the necessary resources to implement DSI’ QMM.
January 31, 2012
48
DSI focuses on the following key areas to ensure the success of our Continuous Improvement
Program:
 Focus on customer requirements
 Clear leadership direction and plans
 Develop competent and committed employees
 Develop informative relationships with customers
 Continually improve processes, products and services
3.10.4 Adapting to Changing Technologies
Adapting to Changing Technologies
Effectively adapting to changing technology is key to survival in the Information Technology
business. In order to be competitive in the Information Technology industry, DSI must stay on
top of emerging technologies and trends. We must constantly prepare and plan for changes. DSI
has had over a decade of experience providing knowledge and extensive know-how relative to
recommendations for the purchasing of hardware and software in light of rapidly changing
technology market trends and conditions. Vinu Luthra, our Chief Operating Officer, personally
oversees DSI Information Technology Procurement and Services division. He personally ensures
all DSI technology product and services contracts have a staff of sales and engineering personnel
that maintain above standard customer service skills and knowledge of current and emerging
technologies. DSI dedicated team members receive constant training on emerging technologies.
Providing cost-effective solutions, quality deliverables, an expeditious response time, added value,
outstanding support, and knowledge transfer of emerging technologies is the reason DSI continues to
grow.
DSI is also using ITIL methodologies to continue with improving our services and adapting to
new technologies. DSI adheres to ongoing technology advances and keeps all employees abreast
of what it takes to have a knowledgeable understanding of new forms and versions of
technologies this day and age.
Continual service improvement, defined in the ITIL continual service improvement aims to align
and realign IT services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing
improvements to the IT services that support the business processes. It incorporates many of the
same concepts articulated in the Deming Cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act. The perspective of CSI
on improvement is the business perspective of service quality, even though CSI aims to improve
process effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the IT processes through the whole
lifecycle. To manage improvement, CSI should clearly define what should be controlled and
measured.
CSI needs to be treated just like any other service practice. There needs to be upfront planning,
training and awareness, ongoing scheduling, roles created, ownership assigned, and activities
identified to be successful. CSI must be planned and scheduled as process with defined activities,
inputs, outputs, roles and reporting.
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Improvement initiatives typically follow a seven-step process:
1. Identify the strategy for improvement
2. Define what you will measure
3. Gather the data
4. Process the data
5. Analyze the information and data
6. Present and use the information
7. Implement improvement
3.11
Personnel Management
3.11.1 Dedicated Account Team
Dedicated Account Team Structure / Resources
DSI utilizes a dedicated account team structure for all of our contracts. DSI is made up of
motivated professionals who are committed to applying their skills, knowledge, experience,
special training, and energies to the achievement of the objectives of our organization. Our
dedicated sales team for the City of Charlotte has been in place for over 6 years, with no turnover.
However, should one of the Key Personnel leave DSI employ and a trained replacement is not
immediately available, DSI will adjust the resources of other sales and administrative teams in
order to ensure requests are handled according to contract deliverable timeframes. This scenario
typically occurs when a Dedicated Account Team member goes on vacation. All contract team
leaders and sales staff use the same software and server resources, are cross trained on all of the
top brands, and are familiar with educational and government procurement policies. Additionally,
the CRM software which provides DSI with tracking and escalation of all requests which enter
DSI allows us to store pertinent customer data so that any one team member can assist a customer
if the individual the customer has been dealing with is unavailable.
In addition to the dedicated sales team, DSI also has a dedicated technical team in place for
CCPA. We have assigned a dedicated technical team to support government customers to the
CCPA.
The dedicated sales and technical teams are managed by our Director of Operations, Vijay Soni,
who will provide oversight for this contract and ensure that all issues are handled to the
customer’s satisfaction.
The following chart provides the specific contacts for the CCPA Contract. The Dedicated Sales
Reps will process orders, provide advance notice of upcoming product changes, provide pre-sales
support of “optional” products, coordinate delivery with manufacturers, as well as provide postsales support of all delivered and installed products. Additionally corporate staff will serve as
backups to perform installation, training, and repair as needed to meet Requesting Agency needs.
January 31, 2012
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Office Locations and Key Support Personnel
DSI has the following office locations and support personnel to service this contract.
Headquarters Office:
Chantilly, VA 20151
Contact: Vijay Soni, Director of Operations
Phone: (888) 286-3896
Fax: (801) 601-2944
E-Mail: [email protected]
This location will serve as the primary location for all
North Carolina contract related functions.
North Carolina Office:
7467 Sedgebrook Drive W
Stanley NC 28164
Contact: Chuck Griffith, Outside Sales Executive
E-Mail: [email protected]
This location will serve as the secondary location for all
North Carolina contract related functions.
Sales Team representatives are available 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Eastern Time, Monday – Friday. The
North Carolina Dedicated Sales Team contact information is below (in brief):
Ordering, Sales, Inquiries
Chantilly, VA 20151-1691
Phone: (888) 286-3896
Fax: (800) 601-2944
Email: [email protected]
Online: www.disyssolutions.com/online
Remittance:
P.O. Box 405881
Atlanta, GA 30384-5881
Phone: (888) 286-3896
Fax: (800) 601-2944
FIN:
27-2586114
Your Dedicated Team
Director of Operations: Vijay Soni, (703) 234-6270
Team Leader: Pankaj Sharma, (703) 234-6276
Inside Sales: Vinant Prahlad, (703) 234-6275
Outside Sales: Chuck Griffith, (704) 827-2511
Returns: [email protected] or (888) 286-3896
Technical Support: [email protected] or (888) 286-3896
January 31, 2012
51
Dedicated Sales Team
The Dedicated Sales Team chart below shows the complete project staffing, detailing the various
positions, which will be used by DSI to ensure success of the City of Charlotte contract
requirements.
Name
Vijay Soni
Position
Director of
Operations
Qualifications







Pankaj
Sharma
Sales Team
Leader
Vinant
Prahlad
Dedicated
Inside Sales
Representative
Chuck
Griffith
Outside Sales
Representative
Tina Tiwana
Customer
Service
Representative
8+ years experience as contracts manager post award
15+ years experience providing Cisco products and services
Strong technical and educational background
Certifications: IP Tel Certified II, Cisco Sales Expert 2.0, Cisco Call Manager
Express Sales, Cisco Service Expert Program, Wireless LAN Specialization for
AM's v3.0, MS Certified Professional
Single Point of Contact for all Contracts related issues.
10+ years experience as account manager for sales.
Cisco Sales Expert, CCDA, Cisco Advanced Wireless LAN Sales Specialist
Responsible for:

Develop relationships with customers

View status reports, ensures timely and accurate shipment of orders, and
coordinates and manages activities within the Dedicated Sales Team

6+ years experience as sales representative for state, local and education sales.

Cisco Services Expert
Responsible for:

Processes all customer requests for quotes, customer orders;

Receive customer feedback

Perform hardware/software analyses to provide comparative data of performance
characteristics and suitability within the existing systems environment.

Prepare trade-off studies and evaluations for vendor equipment.

Recommend network design changes/ enhancements for improved system
availability and performance

Report to Team Leader

Project experience in all areas of IT since 1996, including analog, digital
communications, collaboration, telecommunications, data transport and
protocols, storage, software, security and collaboration.

Current Cisco CSE, NetApp, VMWare (VSP5) & EMC Sales Accreditations

Responsible for:

Support customers in analyzing needs and identifies ideal solutions.

Maintains customer relationships and primary point of contact for customer
service.

Assists with project planning and resource allocation.

Provides product updates and consultation.

Responsible for Client and Internal reporting, as required.

8+ years experience as Service Representative.
Responsible for:

Administrative support to sales team

Process customer requests for RMAs and over-shipments

Work with Credit Department to ensure proper customer credit

Facilitate warranty service/returns with manufacturers
January 31, 2012
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Dedicated Technical Team
DSI’s technical personnel are trained and manufacturer certified annually in a variety of
products/services. The technical personnel below are dedicated to contracts within the State of North
Carolina. Additional personnel can be assigned to support the contract as needed.
Personnel
DSI Position
Yrs. Exp.
Relevant Certifications/Skills
Sivakumar
Mahalingam Senior Voice
Engineer 9 Microsoft Certified Professional, MS-Office, Visio, Windows XP/NT/2000/2003/Vista/MAC X,
TFTP/FTP/TELNET, Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Exchange 2003, GPO, Develop
Implementation Plans Write Design Documents, Test and Acceptance documents, As-Built, CCVP,
CCNA Security, CCSP, CCNA, IPS Specialist, Rich Media Communications Specialist,
Advanced Wireless Field Specialist, Network Admission Control Specialist, Sales Expert 3.0, IP
Contact Center Express Specialist, Data Center Application Services Support Specialist,
Foundation Express field Specialist Nugroho
Hadhiman Senior Network
Engineer 12 Other: HP Procurve Security and Mobility Professional, Microsoft Office 2010, Windows XP,
Vista and 7, CCNP, CCNA, CCDA, Service Expert, Wireless/LAN & IP Telephony Operations
Specialist, Advanced Wireless Design Specialist, Advanced Wireless Field Specialist; Optical
Fiber, VPN Ismail El-Shalh Senior Network
Engineer 10 CQS-CDCNID, CCNP, CQS-DCNIS, CQS-ARSFE, CCNA, CQS-DCASD, CCDA, CCIERouting/Switching Himmat Singh
Rathore Senior Network
Engineer 12 Project Management Professional (PMP), Juniper Networks Certified Internet Specialist (Firewall),
ITIL V3 Foundation, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, CCIE – Voice, CCIE – Security, CCIE
– Routing & Switching, CCIE – Service Provider, CQS - IP Telephony Design Specialist, CQS IP Telephony Operations Specialist, CQS - IP Telephony Express Specialist Vijay Yadav Senior Network
Engineer 3 CCIE – Voice, Web Security Field Engineer,
Brian Keyes Senior Network
Engineer 14 Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, CompTia Security Plus, CCNA Vaijanath
Sonvane Senior Network
Engineer 5 CCNA, CCVP, CCNA – Voice, CCIE – Voice, CCNP - Voice Prem Tiwari Senior Network
Engineer 6 LCSAS, Networks Certified Internet Associate (Enterprise Routing), Networks Certified Internet
Associate (Enterprise Switching), Networks Certified Internet Associate (Firewall/VPN),
Networks Certified Internet Associate (M/T- Series Router), Networks Certified Internet Specialist
(Enterprise Routing), Networks Certified Internet Specialist, Networks Sales Associate Unified
Access Control, Networks Sales Associate SSL, Networks Sales Associate Firewall, Networks
Sales Associate IDP, Networks Sales Associate Enterprise Switch, Networks Sales Associate
WAN Acceleration, Networks Sales Associate Enterprise Routing, Networks Sales Associate
Advanced Network Infrastructure, Networks Sales Specialist Unified Access Control, Networks
Sales Specialist SSL, Networks Sales Specialist Firewall, Networks Sales Specialist IDP,
Networks Sales Specialist Enterprise Switch, Networks Sales Specialist WAN Acceleration,
Networks Sales Specialist Enterprise Routing, Networks Sales Specialist Advanced Network
Infrastructure, CCIE – Routing & Switching, CCIE – Service Provider, CCNP, CCSP, CCNA Arun Kumar Senior Network
Engineer 10 Firm knowledge of QOS, Implemented CBWFQ, Modular QOS, E1 line Configuration, Frame relay
traffic shaping, Virtualization: OpenVZ, Linux XEN, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX/ESXi
3.5/4.x, VMware vSphere 4.x, VMware Server 2.0, Workstation, VMware Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure (Cloud Infrastructure), Firewall/Security: PIX/ASA, packet filters, IOS Firewall
feature set, ipchains, iptables, pfctl, Novell Security Manager, Astro Firewall, Untangle, COPS,
Tripwire, Satan, Saint, Portmapper, SecureLIB, TCP Wrappers, ISS, Snort, NetCat, SSH,
PGP/GPG, Nmap, Nessus, Ethereal, ethercap, snoop, tcpdump, ntop, dsniff, Lan Watch, VPN
Technology, VPN Concentrator, OpenVPN, OpenSWAN, IPSec Compliant products, IPSEC,
DMVPN, GRE Tunnel, CQS-CUSS, CQS-DCASS, CQS-CUDN, CCNP-V, CCNA, CCVP, CCIEVoice, DCSSS Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
53
Certified Technical Support
DSI will assign Technical personnel that have been trained and certified by various manufacturers
such as Cisco, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Symantec, and more - to perform installation, configuration,
training, and maintenance of all proposed equipment. DSI maintains a staff of Certified Engineers at
various levels who stay current with emerging product technology in order to pass re-certification
exams.
Our staff is not only certified but experienced in advising customers in the best methods of
successfully deploying networking communications products and technologies. DSI has an in-house
lab with various networking equipment for the sole purpose of securing the benefit of hands-on
evaluation and testing. DSI will not assign any technical personnel to this contract who has not
received the required training to perform the necessary services at a high level. The table on the
following page is a list of Technical Team Members that will be assigned to the City of Charlotte
contract. This list details the experience and technical certifications possessed by each of the team
members. Team members are constantly adding and/or upgrading technical certifications.
a. Describe your organization’s approach, policies, and experience with respect to deployment of your
personnel; and
Approach to Deployment of Personnel
DSI will review a customer’s need, research project requirements, taking into consideration the
customer’s unique infrastructure, and then determine how to meet their current and future needs. DSI
offers a unique advantage to the City of Charlotte by being both a nationally recognized hardware
reseller and an experienced consulting and technical services provider. Having a consulting arm
allows us to provide quick and efficient deployment of technicians for large projects that may come
up with little notice. DSI is highly experienced at analyzing the needs and requirements of
Government and Education agencies. We are aware of the unique networking requirements of
particular agencies and will be able to deploy the correct personnel for the job.
Our approach to deployment will vary depending on the requirements. Please see Attachment A –
Installation Capabilities for our approach to Installation Projects, Please see Attachment B –
Technical Support Capabilities for our approach to individual support requests.
b. Has your organization been the subject of a dispute or strike by organized labor within the last five
(5) years? Describe the circumstances and the resolution of the dispute.
Organized Labor Dispute or Strike
DSI, Inc. has not been under any dispute or strike within the past five (5) years
3.12
References
Please see Section 5 for the required references.
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54
4. Proposed Solution
4.1 Process
For all new contracts, we believe it is essential to arrange a meeting with the relevant agency
representatives before or within 30 days of contract award to discuss content, procedures, and
specific requirements of the Contract. At this meeting, our objective is to find out as much as we
can about the agency (organization, structure, culture, technology, etc) and the specific role or roles
which affect DSI doing business. By developing a clear understanding of our customers' contract
goals, priorities and environment’s, we have a successful track record fulfilling contract
requirements above expectation.
4.2 Transition Plan
The following transition plan is of a general nature and will focus on how to gain relationships
quickly and in an orderly fashion. Among these will be how DSI will gain recognition and the major
market share of the opportunities available in the City of Charlotte. DSI recommends we meet with
City of Charlotte Contract POC’s upon award to discuss goals and their suggestions for the new
contract compared to services previously offered so that we can develop a more detailed transition
plan.
Contract Transition Plan Timeline
Transition Efforts for Award + 1 week:
Department Involved
Task
Scan/Copy all related proposal and contract
documents for Administrative File and Sales
Department.
Prepare Contract Overview and highlight customer
specific terms, pricing, and response times.
Schedule meeting Contract Agency Contract
Administrator to discuss marketing, news release,
logo requirements, agency contact list, etc.
Create Custom Web Page to include contract details,
contact data, links to contract agency, online store,
manufacturer sites, and price lists.
Post Contract Award on DSI Government Contracts
and News Sites.
Set up customer specific email alias
(“X”[email protected]) and test to ensure
assigned sales team is receiving messages.
Set up customer specific online store pricing rules
based on awarded pricing. Test sample parts for
discount accuracy. Create hard copy catalog if
required.
Create Contract Tag in Accounting System to
record/report purchases.
Create Account Code in Accounting System for
Contract Admin Fee tracking and payment.
Contract Sales
Marketing Accounting
HR
Technical Purchasing
Support
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
January 31, 2012
55
Department Involved
Task
Contract Sales
Marketing Accounting
Create sales tax codes and payment terms.
Add to Reporting Calendar and prepare templates,
design custom reports if applicable.
Schedule group meeting with assigned dedicated sales
team, contract admin, and technical team to review
contract requirements and set escalation procedures in
CRM tool.
Review staffing levels, redistribute team member or
hire additional staff if needed.
Provide receptionist with information to send calls to
appropriate Sales Team.
Create flyer announcing award, benefits to users,
company contact info, etc and send to eligible buying
agencies.
Dedicated Sales Team members to call eligible
buying agencies to introduce contract and company.
Create special pricing discounts with purchasing
resources to offer lower pricing as it becomes
available.
HR
Technical Purchasing
Support
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Transition Efforts for Award + 2 weeks:
Sales Department – Sales and Marketing Staff to implement the following Action,
Research, and Promotion Agendas:
ACTION Agenda
A. DSI will assign an Account Team that will become familiarized with the needs of
individual City of Charlotte contract users. DSI will determine the size of the
team required upon meeting with City of Charlotte to discuss their needs.
B. Sales and Contract Team members to contact Cisco representatives to develop
special promotions, meet with Customers, discuss training and technology needs,
and obtain knowledge about competitor contracts as well as discuss ways they can
help promote the contract to customers in the areas they call upon.
C. Receive contact list of eligible City of Charlotte Customers. Begin “Phone
Campaign Plan” to introduce company, verify proper agency contacts, provide
contract benefits, and discuss ways we can assist them. A major part of this action
is also to record information which will be used in the research step later.
Detailed customer information will be recorded and logged in a database.
Important types of information will include their average computer spending,
major brands purchased, buying quarter and if they will purchase all applicable
products from the Contract and if not, why.
D. Prepare “Onsite Visit Campaign.” Initially, agencies with the largest sales will be
contacted for on-site visits. Once visits are completed then each eligible City of
Charlotte customer in geographic order will be personally contacted.
RESEARCH Agenda
A. The Sales team will review the research provided during the phone and on-site visits
and determine a course of action for any items that may need addressing. For example,
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DSI would research the reasons why customers (especially agencies not required to use
the contract) may not buy all applicable items off the contract. This information will
allow DSI to ensure it takes steps to resolve any reasons a customer would not want to
purchase from the contract.
B.
B.
Current DSI customers who are eligible to purchase from the contract vehicle will be
reviewed and a campaign to contact each contracting agency will be implemented.
This campaign will involve informing these customers of our contract and discussing
ways they can benefit.
PROMOTION Agenda
A. DSI will develop campaigns that will visually advertise the new contract, show
promotions, highlight value-added tools, and provide information on how to use the
resources provided by DSI. These campaigns will include e-mail blasts, mailers, and
trade organization advertising.
B. DSI will develop various promotions for eligible customers to take advantage of. These
will be advertised using e-mail blasts, in our on-line store promotions corner, on the
City of Charlotte dedicated website, and as a pop-up when participants log in to DSI
Online.
C. To keep eligible customers and gain new ones DSI will aggressively advertise pricing
as well as value added benefits. This type of advertisement will show the contract
benefits such as pricing, delivery schedule, and free support offerings. This type of
promotion is effective for DSI as well as the City because we will constantly be
evaluating what offerings need to be increased to keep and gain customers. DSI will
also advertise promotions, trade shows, training and other offers.
Marketing the Master Agreement to Other CCPA Members
We will aggressively advertise pricing and other valued added contract benefits to all agencies. This
includes e-mail blasts, trade shows, outbound sales calls, on-site visits, and flyer mailings that will
show the value-added items in place and what other contracts have. This type of promotion is
effective for DSI as well as City of Charlotte because we will constantly be evaluating where the
prices and services need to be to keep and gain agencies.
DSI currently holds more than 25 state and local contracts nationally. Part of the Research Agenda
section of DSI City of Charlotte Marketing Plan will be to contact each of the City of Charlotte
Agencies to inform them of the benefits to purchasing from the City of Charlotte contract. We will
emphasize the cost-savings via the valued-added services and support City of Charlotte customers
receive.
New Business Development
Developing new business leads to offer non-participating agencies the benefits of using the City of
Charlotte contract for all their technology purchasing needs will involve a lot of research. Exactly
where the sales and marketing staff will focus their energy will be spelled out in the Research Agenda
of DSI City of Charlotte Marketing Plan. A major part of this research will be to first record the
contract vehicles currently used to purchase IT products. Each technology category and major product
January 31, 2012
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brand will be researched. At a minimum, the information to be recorded will be the prospective new
customer name, their website link, purchasing contact info, technology department contact info, IT
budget for the current and upcoming year, and what means they currently use to purchase products.
Some examples of the Research Agenda items will be:
K-12 Listing by State - to determine if non-Participating agencies use their own vehicle,
a statewide vehicle, or a cooperative purchasing group vehicle. Identify the Top 50
education entities not currently customers of City of Charlotte.
New Grants Issued - this will determine the focus of the Sales Team on additional
business which will be generated in the next 6 months to 1 year.
Current Research
We will continue to use the Marketing Plan and break down sales territories nationally and evaluate
the opportunities available to sell products under a newly awarded contract to all government and
education agencies eligible to purchase from it.
For the City of Charlotte contract, we will continue to develop new strategies which make use of the
data compiled on existing contracts to help identify new opportunities.
Marketing Tools
Within the first quarter, to develop Cisco product awareness and leads we plan mailing two or more
flyers each month to potential users. Additionally, we will blanket the purchasing sites with fax
broadcasts to increase our joint name recognition, product and contract awareness and to stimulate
immediate sales. We will also plan strategic e-mail announcements of products and opportunities.
DSI has been successful in many State territories by utilizing flyers for special products or
promotions. We intend to utilize direct mail pieces to announce the contract as well as follow up
monthly highlighting special offerings or products.
DSI will approach the initial marketing efforts using a mix of: flyers, fax broadcasts, e-mail blasts,
person to person outside sales, inside sales, telemarketing, and trade shows. As additional support in
developing Cisco product awareness and leads, we plan to establish a routine attendance at various
trade and or location shows. These will highlight product demonstrations and incentive give a-ways
to assist in opportunity development and awareness.
In addition to direct efforts, DSI has established a web presence that will highlight the Cisco contract
and allow investigation of the products, company contact and purchasing from the web.
Additional Research Tools
We will continue to involve the Contracts and Proposals (CP) Department for the City of Charlotte
contract. The CP Department currently researches ways to receive bid opportunities, actively looks
for current bids and proposals, and responds to all applicable opportunities. We will continue to
employ the CP department as a resource to increase new business by:
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 Completing new bid opportunities using the City of Charlotte contract pricing and
stipulating that upon award agency must be an approved City of Charlotte Agency to
receive the special pricing.
 Provide information to the DSI City of Charlotte Contract Administrator regarding City
of Charlotte Agencies who are soliciting competitive bids for items already on City of
Charlotte contracts.
 Provide information to the DSI City of Charlotte Contract Administrator for expiring
contracts before they come up for extension or re-bid so non-participating agencies can
be convinced to save the administrative burden of soliciting proposals.
Quarterly Meetings with Contract Administrator
DSI will hold quarterly meetings with the City of Charlotte Contract Administrator to:
1. Review renewal and attach rates under the contract
2. Discuss any pending issues
4.3 Service Transition
DSI will use the ITIL methodologies to provide a smooth and seamless transition of services to our
platform. Service transition, as described by the ITIL service transition volume, relates to the
delivery of services required by a business into live/operational use, and often encompasses the
"project" side of IT rather than "BAU" (Business as usual). This area also covers topics such as
managing changes to the "BAU" environment.
List of ITIL processes in Service Transition (ST):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Transition planning and support
Change management
Service asset and configuration management
Release and deployment management
Service validation and testing
Change evaluation
Knowledge management
Change management
Change Management aims to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient
handling of all changes. A change is an event that results in a new status of one or more
Configuration items (CIs), and which is approved by management, cost-effective, enhances
business process changes (fixes) – all with a minimum risk to IT infrastructure.
The main aims of change management include:
 Minimal disruption of services
 Reduction in back-out activities
 Economic use of resources involved in the change
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Service asset and configuration management
Service asset and configuration management is primarily focused on maintaining information (i.e.,
configurations) about Configuration Items (i.e., assets) required to deliver an IT service, including
their relationships. Configuration management is the management and traceability of every aspect of
a configuration from beginning to end and it includes the following key process areas under its
umbrella:






Identification,
Planning,
Change Control,
Change Management,
Release Management, and
Maintenance.
Release and deployment management
Release and deployment management is used by the software migration team for platformindependent and automated distribution of software and hardware, including license controls across
the entire IT infrastructure. Proper software and hardware control ensures the availability of
licensed, tested, and version-certified software and hardware, which functions as intended when
introduced into existing infrastructure. Quality control during the development and implementation
of new hardware and software is also the responsibility of Release Management. This guarantees
that all software meets the demands of the business processes.
The goals of release management include:




Planning the rollout of software
Designing and implementing procedures for the distribution and installation of changes to IT
systems
Effectively communicating and managing expectations of the customer during the planning
and rollout of new releases
Controlling the distribution and installation of changes to IT systems
Release management focuses on the protection of the live environment and its services through the
use of formal procedures and checks.
A Release consists of the new or changed software and/or hardware required to implement approved
changes. Release categories include:


Major software releases and major hardware upgrades, normally containing large amounts of
new functionality, some of which may make intervening fixes to problems redundant. A
major upgrade or release usually supersedes all preceding minor upgrades, releases and
emergency fixes.
Minor software releases and hardware upgrades, normally containing small enhancements
and fixes, some of which may have already been issued as emergency fixes. A minor upgrade
or release usually supersedes all preceding emergency fixes.
January 31, 2012
60

Emergency software and hardware fixes, normally containing the corrections to a small
number of known problems.
Releases can be divided based on the release unit into:



Delta release: a release of only that part of the software which has been changed. For
example, security patches.
Full release: the entire software program is deployed—for example, a new version of an
existing application.
Packaged release: a combination of many changes—for example, an operating system image
which also contains specific applications.
4.4 Project Plan
DSI develops a project plan for each individual project. Below is an example of a project plan that DSI
recently put together for one of our projects. An MS Project Format of this Project Plan is provided in soft
copy of our CD-ROM submission
Task #
Task Name
Duration in Days
Start
Finish
1
Award of Project
3d
Mon 1/17/11
Wed 1/19/11
2
Procurement
52d
Thu 1/20/11
Fri 4/1/11
3
Meet Towson University
2d
Thu 1/20/11
Fri 1/21/11
4
Finalize Bill of Material for Phase 1
3d
Mon 1/24/11
Wed 1/26/11
5
Ordering of equipment on Receipt of PO
2d
Thu 1/27/11
Fri 1/28/11
6
Receive Equipment
45d
Mon 1/31/11
Fri 4/1/11
7
Project Management
16d
Mon 1/24/11
Mon 2/14/11
8
Project Kickoff
1d
Mon 1/24/11
Mon 1/24/11
9
Project Launch workshop
14d
Tue 1/25/11
Fri 2/11/11
10
Establish Roles and Responsibilities
1d
Mon 2/14/11
Mon 2/14/11
12
Site Readiness Assessment
15d
Tue 2/15/11
Mon 3/7/11
13
Produce Site Requirement Specifications
1d
Tue 2/15/11
Tue 2/15/11
14
Current Network Assessment
5d
Wed 2/16/11
Tue 2/22/11
15
"Assess the physical ,electrical and environmental specifications"
5d
Wed 2/23/11
Tue 3/1/11
16
Assess the gaps between site requirements and site survey
1d
Wed 3/2/11
Wed 3/2/11
17
Provide recommendations related to the gaps
1d
Thu 3/3/11
Thu 3/3/11
18
Document the gap analysis
1d
Fri 3/4/11
Fri 3/4/11
19
Present and discuss the gap analysis and recommendations
1d
Mon 3/7/11
Mon 3/7/11
21
Detailed Design Development
19d
Tue 3/8/11
Fri 4/1/11
22
Conduct a Planning meeting to set expectations and to define
deliverables
Evaluate existing network design and documentation
2d
Tue 3/8/11
Wed 3/9/11
2d
Thu 3/10/11
Fri 3/11/11
2d
Thu 3/10/11
Fri 3/11/11
25
"Verify the chosen platform, features and functionality meets the
design objective"
Perform Network design activities
15d
Mon 3/14/11
Fri 4/1/11
26
Bandwidth modeling and QoS
2d
Mon 3/14/11
Tue 3/15/11
January 31, 2012
23
24
61
Task #
Task Name
Duration in Days
Start
Finish
27
Capacity planning
2d
Wed 3/16/11
Thu 3/17/11
28
Architecture review and Overall RISK assessment
1d
Fri 3/18/11
Fri 3/18/11
29
Network devices naming conventions
1d
Mon 3/21/11
Mon 3/21/11
30
VLAN and IP address scheme
1d
Tue 3/22/11
Tue 3/22/11
31
Scalability and redundancy assessment
1d
Wed 3/23/11
Wed 3/23/11
32
Security assessment in accordance with Best Practices
1d
Thu 3/24/11
Thu 3/24/11
33
Integrate technical requirements and design goals into the low
level design
1d
Fri 3/25/11
Fri 3/25/11
34
"Develop ,deliver and discuss low level design document"
1d
Mon 3/28/11
Mon 3/28/11
35
Present the design with physical and logical topology
1d
Tue 3/29/11
Tue 3/29/11
36
Document the recommendations if any
1d
Wed 3/30/11
Wed 3/30/11
37
Provide QOS Snippets and requirements to University
2d
Thu 3/31/11
Fri 4/1/11
38
Perform Voice Design Activity
6d
Mon 3/14/11
Mon 3/21/11
39
Buildings and Phones per Building
1d
Mon 3/14/11
Mon 3/14/11
40
Departments and Extensions
1d
Tue 3/15/11
Tue 3/15/11
41
Dial Plan
1d
Wed 3/16/11
Wed 3/16/11
42
PRIs and Existing PBX
1d
Thu 3/17/11
Thu 3/17/11
43
User data for Phase 1A
1d
Fri 3/18/11
Fri 3/18/11
44
Define User set for University Phones
1d
Mon 3/21/11
Mon 3/21/11
45
OTS Faculty Help Desk & Discovery Session (UCCX)
1d
Mon 3/14/11
Mon 3/14/11
48
Implementation and Migration
103d
Mon 4/4/11
Wed 8/24/11
49
Implementation
103d
Mon 4/4/11
Wed 8/24/11
50
Verify Received equipment against BOM (Phase 1)
2d
Mon 4/4/11
Tue 4/5/11
51
Off Site SETUP and testing Hardware
12d
Wed 4/6/11
Thu 4/21/11
52
"Unpack all the Hardware, check for any hardware damages"
1d
Wed 4/6/11
Wed 4/6/11
53
Assemble system components.
1d
Thu 4/7/11
Thu 4/7/11
54
Power on all the Devices and make sure it works
1d
Fri 4/8/11
Fri 4/8/11
55
Put the asset tags on the switches if provided by TU
1d
Mon 4/11/11
Mon 4/11/11
56
Cisco Unified Communications Managers Cluster
8d
Tue 4/12/11
Thu 4/21/11
57
OS installation for Communications Managers
3d
Tue 4/12/11
Thu 4/14/11
58
Install Latest Patches for Communications Managers
1d
Fri 4/15/11
Fri 4/15/11
59
CallManager Cluster Configuration
1d
Fri 4/15/11
Fri 4/15/11
60
Provision Initial Users
1d
Mon 4/18/11
Mon 4/18/11
61
Dial Plan Configuration
1d
Tue 4/19/11
Tue 4/19/11
62
Conferencing and DSP Configuration
1d
Wed 4/20/11
Wed 4/20/11
63
Verify Cluster
1d
Thu 4/21/11
Thu 4/21/11
64
Cisco Unity Connection Voicemail Cluster
4d
Tue 4/12/11
Fri 4/15/11
65
OS installation Unity Connection Voicemail
1d
Tue 4/12/11
Tue 4/12/11
66
Install Latest Patches for Unity Connection Voicemail
1d
Wed 4/13/11
Wed 4/13/11
67
Unity Configuration
1d
Thu 4/14/11
Thu 4/14/11
January 31, 2012
62
Task #
Task Name
Duration in Days
Start
Finish
68
Integrating with CUCM
1d
Fri 4/15/11
Fri 4/15/11
69
Verifying Active / Active configuration
1d
Fri 4/15/11
Fri 4/15/11
70
Cisco Emergency Responder Server Group
5d
Tue 4/12/11
Mon 4/18/11
71
OS installation for CER
1d
Tue 4/12/11
Tue 4/12/11
72
Install Latest Patches for CER
1d
Wed 4/13/11
Wed 4/13/11
73
CER Initial Configuration
1d
Thu 4/14/11
Thu 4/14/11
74
1d
Fri 4/15/11
Fri 4/15/11
75
Verifying Active / Standby Configuration
1d
Mon 4/18/11
Mon 4/18/11
76
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express
4d
Tue 4/12/11
Fri 4/15/11
77
OS installation UCCX Server
1d
Tue 4/12/11
Tue 4/12/11
78
Install Latest Patches for UCCX Server
1d
Wed 4/13/11
Wed 4/13/11
79
1d
Thu 4/14/11
Thu 4/14/11
80
Verifying Active / Standby Configuration
1d
Fri 4/15/11
Fri 4/15/11
81
Voice Gateways
1d
Thu 4/21/11
Thu 4/21/11
82
Configure Voice Gateway with Initial Configuration
1d
Thu 4/21/11
Thu 4/21/11
83
Ship Equipment Onsite
1d
Fri 4/22/11
Fri 4/22/11
85
Onsite Setup and Testing
88d
Mon 4/25/11
Wed 8/24/11
86
Initial Setup and Cisco Integrations
6d
Mon 4/25/11
Mon 5/2/11
87
"Unpack all the Hardware, check for any hardware damages"
1d
Mon 4/25/11
Mon 4/25/11
88
Assemble system components.
1d
Mon 4/25/11
Mon 4/25/11
89
Rack the Equipment
1d
Mon 4/25/11
Mon 4/25/11
90
Power on and test
1d
Mon 4/25/11
Mon 4/25/11
91
Connect to Network
1d
Tue 4/26/11
Tue 4/26/11
92
2d
Wed 4/27/11
Thu 4/28/11
93
Check for connectivity and redundancy among the clusters and
check for Integrations among Servers
Install Voice Gateways
1d
Fri 4/29/11
Fri 4/29/11
94
Configure and Add Voice Gateways to CUCM
1d
Mon 5/2/11
Mon 5/2/11
95
Integration with Microsoft
4d
Tue 5/3/11
Fri 5/6/11
96
Integrate CUCM with AD for User sync and auth.
1d
Tue 5/3/11
Tue 5/3/11
97
Integrate with Exchange for UM / VM
1d
Wed 5/4/11
Wed 5/4/11
98
Integrate CUCM with OCS
2d
Thu 5/5/11
Fri 5/6/11
99
Integration with NEC PBX
5d
Tue 5/3/11
Mon 5/9/11
100
Establish physical layer connectivity
1d
Tue 5/3/11
Tue 5/3/11
101
Configure NEC PBX for CUCM
1d
Wed 5/4/11
Wed 5/4/11
102
"Configure Voice GW and CUCM, for NEC"
1d
Thu 5/5/11
Thu 5/5/11
103
Configure appropriate Call Routing for initial set of Phones
1d
Fri 5/6/11
Fri 5/6/11
104
"Provide Proof of Concept, RISK Assessment and Fallback plan
for all Phases"
Third party Integration
1d
Mon 5/9/11
Mon 5/9/11
2d
Tue 5/10/11
Wed 5/11/11
105
106
Integration with NICE
1d
Tue 5/10/11
Tue 5/10/11
107
Integration with Call Accounting system
1d
Wed 5/11/11
Wed 5/11/11
January 31, 2012
63
Task #
Task Name
Duration in Days
Start
Finish
108
Integration with Telepresence
2d
Thu 5/12/11
Fri 5/13/11
109
Deploy Music on Hold
1d
Mon 5/16/11
Mon 5/16/11
110
Configure BACKUP and DR
1d
Tue 5/17/11
Tue 5/17/11
110
Migration and Phone RollOut
77d
Tue 5/10/11
Wed 8/24/11
112
Phase 1A
18d
Tue 5/10/11
Thu 6/2/11
113
Install Initial 20 Phones
1d
Tue 5/10/11
Tue 5/10/11
114
Install and configure Analog Gateway
1d
Wed 5/11/11
Wed 5/11/11
115
Configure appropriate Call Routing in NEC
1d
Thu 5/12/11
Thu 5/12/11
116
"UCCx Script, Prompt,"
5d
Tue 5/10/11
Mon 5/16/11
117
"Agent Desktop, Integration and workflow(UCCX)"
5d
Tue 5/17/11
Mon 5/23/11
118
QA Testing(UCCX)
1d
Tue 5/24/11
Tue 5/24/11
119
Testing
3d
Fri 5/13/11
Tue 5/17/11
120
"Calls between extension, remote PBX and PSTN"
1d
Fri 5/13/11
Fri 5/13/11
121
Testing user feature
2d
Mon 5/16/11
Tue 5/17/11
122
Test Voicemail
2d
Mon 5/16/11
Tue 5/17/11
123
"Test e911 calls, Call Accounting"
2d
Mon 5/16/11
Tue 5/17/11
124
Training
15d
Fri 5/13/11
Thu 6/2/11
125
End User
2d
Fri 5/13/11
Mon 5/16/11
126
Administrator
15d
Fri 5/13/11
Thu 6/2/11
127
Cutover and day 2 Support
1d
Wed 5/18/11
Wed 5/18/11
128
Cutover and day 2 support for UCCX
1d
Wed 5/25/11
Wed 5/25/11
129
Phase 1B
18d
Fri 6/3/11
Tue 6/28/11
130
Collect User Data
3d
Fri 6/3/11
Tue 6/7/11
131
BAT in phones
1d
Wed 6/8/11
Wed 6/8/11
132
Install Phones
5d
Thu 6/9/11
Wed 6/15/11
133
Install and Configure Analog Gateway
2d
Thu 6/9/11
Fri 6/10/11
134
5d
Thu 6/9/11
Wed 6/15/11
135
Testing
2d
Thu 6/16/11
Fri 6/17/11
136
2d
Thu 6/16/11
Fri 6/17/11
137
2d
Thu 6/16/11
Fri 6/17/11
138
Test Voicemail
2d
Thu 6/16/11
Fri 6/17/11
139
Test e911 calls
2d
Thu 6/16/11
Fri 6/17/11
140
Training
7d
Mon 6/20/11
Tue 6/28/11
141
Agent and Supervisor
1d
Mon 6/20/11
Mon 6/20/11
142
End User Training
7d
Mon 6/20/11
Tue 6/28/11
143
5d
Mon 6/20/11
Fri 6/24/11
145
Phase 2A
18d
Mon 6/27/11
Wed 7/20/11
146
Collect User Data
3d
Mon 6/27/11
Wed 6/29/11
147
BAT in phones
1d
Thu 6/30/11
Thu 6/30/11
148
Install Phones
5d
Fri 7/1/11
Thu 7/7/11
149
5d
Fri 7/1/11
Thu 7/7/11
January 31, 2012
64
Task #
Task Name
Duration in Days
Start
Finish
150
Testing
2d
Fri 7/8/11
Mon 7/11/11
151
2d
Fri 7/8/11
Mon 7/11/11
152
2d
Fri 7/8/11
Mon 7/11/11
153
Test Voicemail
2d
Fri 7/8/11
Mon 7/11/11
154
Test e911 calls
2d
Fri 7/8/11
Mon 7/11/11
155
Training
7d
Tue 7/12/11
Wed 7/20/11
156
End User
7d
Tue 7/12/11
Wed 7/20/11
157
5d
Tue 7/12/11
Mon 7/18/11
161
Phase 2B per Cutover
18d
Mon 8/1/11
Wed 8/24/11
162
Collect User Data
3d
Mon 8/1/11
Wed 8/3/11
163
BAT in phones
1d
Thu 8/4/11
Thu 8/4/11
164
Install Phones
5d
Fri 8/5/11
Thu 8/11/11
165
5d
Fri 8/5/11
Thu 8/11/11
166
Testing
2d
Fri 8/12/11
Mon 8/15/11
167
2d
Fri 8/12/11
Mon 8/15/11
168
2d
Fri 8/12/11
Mon 8/15/11
169
Test Voicemail
2d
Fri 8/12/11
Mon 8/15/11
170
Test e911 calls
2d
Fri 8/12/11
Mon 8/15/11
171
Training
7d
Tue 8/16/11
Wed 8/24/11
172
End User
7d
Tue 8/16/11
Wed 8/24/11
173
5d
Tue 8/16/11
Mon 8/22/11
174
UCCX Install and Testing
15d
Thu 8/4/11
Wed 8/24/11
175
Additional Discovery
1d
Thu 8/4/11
Thu 8/4/11
176
"UCCx Script, Prompt, Document, Development"
5d
Fri 8/5/11
Thu 8/11/11
177
Agent Desktop Integration and Workflow
5d
Fri 8/12/11
Thu 8/18/11
178
Quality Assurance Testing
1d
Fri 8/19/11
Fri 8/19/11
179
Agent and Supervisor Training
1d
Mon 8/22/11
Mon 8/22/11
180
Cutover
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
181
Second Day Support
1d
Wed 8/24/11
Wed 8/24/11
183
Option I (PRI move per cutover)
2d
Tue 8/23/11
Wed 8/24/11
184
Make list of DIDs moved per Cutover/Migration
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
185
Coordinate with Service provider to Move PRI / move numbers
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
186
Install New/Moved PRI on Voice Gateway
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
187
Provision in CUCM to route calls via new PRI
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
188
Test Calls
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
189
Day 2 Support
1d
Wed 8/24/11
Wed 8/24/11
190
Option II (PRI move in One GO)
2d
Tue 8/23/11
Wed 8/24/11
191
Coordinate with Service provider to Move PRIs
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
192
Schedule Downtime
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
193
Move PRIs and Test calls
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
194
Provision in CUCM to route calls via new PRI
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
January 31, 2012
65
Task #
Task Name
Duration in Days
Start
Finish
195
Test Calls
1d
Tue 8/23/11
Tue 8/23/11
196
Day 2 Support
1d
Wed 8/24/11
Wed 8/24/11
197
Documentation
10d
Wed 8/24/11
Tue 9/6/11
198
Hardware Inventory list with IP and Location information
2d
Wed 8/24/11
Thu 8/25/11
199
Usernames and password
2d
Fri 8/26/11
Mon 8/29/11
200
Running configurations for all the switches installed
2d
Tue 8/30/11
Wed 8/31/11
201
Versions installed
2d
Thu 9/1/11
Fri 9/2/11
202
Network Topology using MS-Visio
2d
Mon 9/5/11
Tue 9/6/11
4.5 Client Relationship Management
DSI uses a well-defined and logical contract management process for controlling work and
providing our customers with insight into our activities at every step. The two main processes we
will use to keep the city informed of this project will be to setup regular meetings with the City of
Charlotte contract administrator and to provide monthly reports. This initial step is to set up a
meeting with the City of Charlotte contract administrator and personnel in order to gain a complete
understand of the City’s requirements and needs for this contract. DSI strives to maintain an
informative relationship with our customers. Our Sales Staff is constantly trained on new products
and informed about what products will be replaced. Their primary responsibility when sending
quotations to customers is not to just quote current catalog or web site items, but to check
availability of the products and inform customers of any availability issues that may arise. If we
know that a requested item is going to be discontinued, we will inform the customer and let them
know the status of a replacement item.
DSI customer service procedures involve constant follow up with customers for both quote requests
and orders. Each time a quote is submitted a dedicated sales rep will follow up with the customer to
ensure their goals have been met. We also call customers to inform them of receipt of their order so
they can plan delivery and installation of their products if applicable. DSI uses our own CRM
software to provide in-house and external reports designed to track and monitor order progress, as
well as to provide agencies with requested contract reports. Reports include but are not limited to
Warranty Status Tracking, Items Sold Detail by Agency, Subcontracting Spend, Cost Savings, Fill
Rate, and Invoice Timeliness. In addition our online ordering system provides the ability for an
agency to manage user accounts and create reports based on agency login account setup. Online
store reports include Budget vs. Actual spend by cost center and by buyer, Quotes/Orders by buyer,
and Orders by brand. This allows us to provide the City with contract information and keep them
informed of the current progress of certain projects.
DSI will assign a dedicated team to oversee the City of Charlotte contract. DSI currently has a full
time Dedicated Account Team which consists of highly qualified personnel on staff to properly
perform the contract tasks for the City of Charlotte contract users. In addition to providing quotes
and processing orders, their purpose is to develop and maintain relationships with City of Charlotte
contract users. Personnel which make up the Dedicated Account Team consist of a dedicated
Technical, Sales and Administrative staff who have become familiar with all aspects of the contract
January 31, 2012
66
in order to efficiently perform contract related tasks such as order processing (sales), design
assistance (sales), hardware and software installation (technical), product documentation
(marketing), product support (customer service), invoice processing (accounting) and more. The
Account Manager, Team Leader, and Lead Engineer will conduct frequent meetings with Authorized
Users and City of Charlotte to discuss emerging technology and infrastructure changes, oversee local
subcontractors, maintain delivery schedules, deliverables, perform installation, training, repair, and
receive contract feedback.
4.6 Risk Management
DSI has obtained and in-depth understanding of the unique networking requirements of State and
Local Government and Education agencies from over 13 years of experience as a provider of
Information Technology products and services. The majority of our experience comes directly from
the exact products and services being requested in this RFP. Through this experience, DSI has been
able to develop an effective Quality Management Methodology and Contract Management Plan. We
have gained in-depth knowledge of how to develop Transition Plans and Pre/Post-Sales Support
Plans tailored specifically to each contract we are awarded in order to mitigate any potential risks.
With our proven processes, DSI is able to reduce any possible risks that may face City of Charlotte
and our company on this contract.
Risk Assessment and Management Plan
DSI risk assessment approach is depicted below. This approach has been successfully utilized on
both Government and commercial contracts. DSI minimizes risk by using a proactive approach early
in the project planning process. Although DSI strives to prevent problems, it is also prepared to
identify issues early on to minimize their impact on schedule and cost.
Risk identification processes assure continuous risk assessment at project levels. Project risks are
identified and documented at the beginning of the project and are continuously monitored and
assessed throughout the life of the project. Project risks are identified during the Project Planning
phase. For those risks not identified initially, periodic risk assessments are built into a Project Plan
for the purpose of identifying new issues and associated risks.
January 31, 2012
67
Change Planning
Change planning that identifies the risk level of a change and builds change planning requirements
to ensure that the change is successful. The key steps for change planning which DSI performs are as
follows:
Assign all potential changes a risk level prior to scheduling the change.
Document at least three risk levels with corresponding change planning requirements.
Identify risk levels for software and hardware upgrades, topology changes, routing
changes, configuration changes, and new deployments.
Assign higher risk levels to non-standard add, move, or change types of activity (the highrisk change process that is documented includes lab validation, vendor review, peer review,
and detailed configuration and design documentation).
Create solution templates for deployments affecting multiple sites. Include information
about physical layout, logical design, configuration, software versions, acceptable hardware
chassis and modules, and deployment guidelines.
Document the network standards for configuration, software version, supported hardware,
and Domain Name System (DNS) to include device naming, design, and services
supported.
Change Management
DSI change management process approves and schedules the change to ensure the correct level of
notification with minimal user impact. The key steps for change management are as follows:
Assign a change controller who can run change management review meetings, receive and
review change requests, manage change process improvements, and serve as the liaison for
user groups.
Hold periodic change review meetings to include system administration, application
development, network operations, and facilities groups, as well as general users.
Document change input requirements including change owner, business impact, risk level,
reason for change, success factors, back-out plan, and testing requirements.
Document change output requirements including updates to DNS, network map, template,
IP addressing, circuit management, and network management.
Define a change approval process that verifies validation steps for higher-risk change.
Hold postmortem meetings for unsuccessful changes to determine the root cause of change
failure.
Develop an emergency change procedure which ensures that the optimal solution is either
quickly restored or that one is created.
Problem Correction
DSI management is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction. We will constantly
analyze CPPA’s needs to ensure that we can provide them the best possible services. We want to be
seen not only as a staffing vendor, but a partner who is keenly dedicated to the success of CPPA.
The entire DSI Staffing Resources team convenes for weekly and quarterly meetings to discuss
outstanding issues and process improvement suggestions for individual CPPA task order situations.
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68
DSI emphasizes the use of problem correction to determine the actual cause of non-conformances
(including customer complaints, nonconforming consultants, and nonconforming processes) to
prevent their recurrence in the following ways:
 Effective handling of customer complaints and reporting of nonconformity
 Investigation of the root cause of nonconformity relating to services, processes, and
QMS, and recording the results of the investigation
 Corrective Actions are recorded on Corrective Action Requests (CARs) and Change
Orders (Cos) are implemented if required.
 Determination of the corrective action needed to eliminate the cause of nonconformity
 Application of controls to ensure that corrective action is taken and that it is effective.
Internal Performance Indicators to Measure Success
DSI will consistently review the total procurement cost and implement processes to manage all
components. Additionally, DSI will ensure steps are constantly initiated to reduce both internal
costs associated with the Staff Augmentation process. Periodic stewardship meetings will be
performed with CPPA to share performance and pricing information and discuss future staffing
opportunities.
Key Performance Indicators: KPIs will ensure consultant quality performance and DSI IT staff
augmentation fulfillment. Example of some KPI’s are:







Candidate Requisition Processing: Requisition form ease of use, requisition form
thoroughness
Candidate Selection: Process response time, Lead-time to fill, Screening ratio (resumes
submitted per interview)
Success ratio: resumes submitted per placement
Interview efficiency: # of interviews per placement
Bill rate management: Pay (and fee) rates by role, # of exceptions
Candidate On-boarding: Completion times for contract processing, background/drug checks
and CPPA background investigation status report, safety compliance, orientation time,
documentation completion, supervisor "on-boarding" feedback
Candidate monitoring: Performance checks, position renewal rates, supervisor quality
feedback, early termination percentage, short-term attrition percentage, termination reasons
Pre- and Post-Sales Support Plan
DSI will have a dedicated sales team to provide sales support to State agencies. Pankaj Sharma will
be the ream leader for the City of Charlotte contract users. Our dedicated sales team will be able to
provide pre-sales support at no additional charge to the State agency. This support will include, but
not be limited to, current and new product information, configuration assistance, and product
pricing.
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69
Pre-Sales Support Methodology
The DSI dedicated sales team will ensure that all products ordered by and delivered to the State will
be compatible with the environment for which it is ordered. DSI offers the following pre-sales
support activities:
 Organize and conduct fact-finding processes necessary to improve part quality, integrity,
application-specific reliability, and cost effectiveness;
 Assessment of Cisco’s life cycles’ obsolescence including life cycle phases and their
characteristics, technology trends driving obsolescence, device family trends, and
obsolescence management strategies;
 Choose parts to properly fit the functionality of the product, to satisfy system, assembly and
design level constraints, and to support any manufacturing and handling requirements within
the customer’s environment;
 Understand and evaluate the parts’ actual "micro-environment" within a system and then
choose the correct technique to fit the parts to their intended environmental requirements;
 Maximize system supportability by preparing for and meeting the challenge of parts
becoming obsolete during system life;
 Reliability assessment using manufacturer integrity to assess reliability including assembly
compatibility, routing compatibility, testing and rework acceptability.
Pre and Post-Sales Support Plan
DSI will offer the following list of non-inclusive support services from our Chantilly, VA office.
The tables on the following pages show the specific actions that will be required to effectively
provide City of Charlotte customers with the best support. DSI has listed these to demonstrate our
knowledge of the support required to provide City of Charlotte agencies with the best value, as well
as to show the personnel roles within the organization that will be assigned to this contract. These
actions are not all inclusive and may be changed to suit the needs of City of Charlotte customers
over the life of the contract.
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Contract Support Actions Pre- and Post-Sales
Contract Action
DSI Department or
Personnel Role
Responsible for Action
Description
Pre-Delivery Support
Requests for Product
Information /
Briefings on Emerging
Technologies
Configuration
Assistance
Network Design
Assistance
Order Receipt
Order Confirmation
and Validation
Order Placement
Order Tracking,
Upgrade requests, and
Delivery Date
Confirmation
Roll-Out Schedule or
Installation Project
Tracking (if ordered).
Assist City of Charlotte customers with product requests,
price quotes, and other contract information. Sales staff will
ask qualifying questions to ensure suggested products match
customer needs. Brochures, price lists, and other
information provided as requested. Turnaround time for
quotes not requiring configuration will be done immediately
and take no longer than 30 minutes.
Configurations will be turned around from 30 minutes to 4
hours depending on number of parts being requested.
Network design assistance support can be performed via
phone, email, meetings and site surveys. Design assistance
would involve a review of the current infrastructure and the
additional network scope the agency wants to achieve.
Orders will be accepted via phone, email, online store and
fax. Orders are reviewed for configuration accuracy and
availability and entered into our system within 24 hours of
receipt.
Within 24 hours the order is reviewed and entered, the
customer is informed of expected delivery date via email or
other preferred medium, and any problems related to their
order. In the event of invalid configuration or availability
issues the agency will be informed of corrective options.
Barring any configuration or availability issues all orders
are placed with manufacturer 24-48 hours after receipt.
Backorder and Open order reports are run twice a week and
all orders listed are checked to ensure they are still on
schedule for expected delivery date. Customers are
informed of shipment when it is released from manufacturer
or DSI warehouse. Upgrade requests can be made via online
help desk or via phone, email, or fax to any dedicated Sales
Team Member
Once order is received Team Leader will coordinate with
agency and DSI technicians to coordinate delivery and
installation according to customer schedule request. Projects
are recorded in our tracking system to ensure escalation
occurs should any timeframe not be met. Weekly meetings
with DSI Sales Team Leader and agency contact via email,
phone or agency preferred medium are recommended.
January 31, 2012
Available via phone,
online, email or fax
through the dedicated
Sales Account Executive
and Sales Team Leader.
Information also available
via Cisco’s website.
Leader and Sales Account
Executive.
Leader.
Orders can be placed with
any dedicated Sales Team
Member.
Member.
Member.
Member.
Leader and Network
Engineer.
71
Contract Support Actions Pre- and Post-Sales
Contract Action
Description
DSI Department or
Personnel Role
Responsible for Action
Post-Delivery Support
Warranty Status
Tracking
Documentation and
Reporting
Order Inaccuracies
Evaluation of
Customer Service
Repair Requests
A spreadsheet per agency location can be created for all
new purchases made. The specific contract warranties
begin and end date and any purchased upgrades are
recorded. DSI can provide monthly (or any frequency
requested) updates to the individual agency and/or City of
Charlotte POC.
All reports will be automatically generated and sent to the
requesting agency. Requests for additional reports and
documentation can be made to any dedicated Sales Team
Member.
The correction of all order inaccuracies including damaged
and dead on arrival products will be processed within 24
hours of request receipt.
All customers who purchase products are contacted within
1-2 months after their purchase via the dedicated Sales
Team Leader to inquire about product and service
satisfaction. Customers are encouraged to complete online
surveys. Customers that express dissatisfaction are
contacted by the DSI Contract Administrator to resolve the
problem and take corrective procedural actions to prevent
future occurrences.
DSI can provide a 24x7 help desk support phone number.
Repair tickets can also be opened online. A technician will
respond within one hour to establish problem resolution.
Repair Escalation
All customers who request repairs are issued a ticket
number. At anytime they can go online or call and escalate
their ticket to the next priority level.
Repair and
Installation
Satisfaction
Upon completion of any repair or installation the Network
Engineer must have the agency sign off stating the work
was completed to their satisfaction. In addition a survey is
provided to the agency requesting them to provide
additional detailed information related to the service.
Copies of surveys received can be forwarded to the
requesting agency monthly or quarterly. Reports can also
be generated to track delivery performance and other
contract deliverables upon request; Ensures adherence to
any security requirements and addresses areas of concern
and any possible follow-up actions required.
Contract
Performance Review
/ Adherence to
Security
Requirements
January 31, 2012
Sales Team Leader or
designated Sales Account
Executive.
Sales Team Leader or
designated Sales Account
Executive.
Any dedicated Sales Team
member and/or Customer
Service Department (RMA).
Contract Administrator
Done via online, fax, email, or
phone. First assigned to
Technical Team Leader or Sr.
Network Engineer, then
available qualified Network
Engineer.
Done via online, fax, email, or
phone. First assigned to
Technical Team Leader or Sr.
Network Engineer, then
available qualified Network
Engineer.
Technical Team Leader.
Customers can also go online
and complete surveys, which
are sent to the President.
Contract Administrator
72
Service Level Agreements
Performance
Metric
Description
Performance
Target
Calculation
Frequency
of Review
Remedy
Order Confirmation
Measures response time
from receipt of order to
confirmation of order
receipt
95% or
higher
Number of orders which
received confirmation
within 4 hours / total
number or orders
Monthly
Hire additional order entry
personnel to augment the
dedicated sales team to ensure that
all response times are less than 4
hours. We currently meet this
requirement on several state and
national contracts we hold.
Delivery Date
Measures Supplier’s
ability to meet its
commitment to deliver
by the due date on the
confirmed Order
95% or
higher
Number of orders
fulfilled by the due date
on the confirmed order /
total number of orders
Monthly
Work with distributors and
manufacturers to gain better
insight into these unforeseen
delays. If needed we may purchase
the product from a higher cost
source with immediate stock,
and/or pay rush delivery charges
with no additional charges passed
on the agency. Our current fill rate
and delivery promptness is above
95% even with stringent delivery
timeframes such as 2-7 days.
Incident Resolution
ability to expeditiously
resolve technical issues:
Indicates how many
incidents are
successfully resolved.
95% or
higher
Number of incident
reports successfully
resolved and closed on
time for the month / total
number of incident
reports initiated for the
month
Monthly
Hire additional manufacturer
certified trained technicians to
augment the dedicated technical
team. In addition we may seek the
assistance of subcontractors,
especially SMWBE business to
help augment our staff. DISYS has
specific escalations in place which
inform senior levels of
management if technical support is
not resolved within 24 hours.
Catalog Accuracy
ability to attentively
provide all products at
the correct rates in
accordance with the
contract: Indicates
interval from
notification of an error
or omission in the
catalog until the error or
omission is corrected.
95% or
higher
Total number of errors or
omissions fixed within
one business day / total
number of errors or
omissions reported
Monthly
Work with our online store
company (VarStreet) to determine
the problem and ensure all
products are being entered in the
online store based on the
availability and price lists which
come directly from the
manufacturer. DSI has over 20
contracts which utilize a catalog
powered by our online store or
using punch out technology. We
have a very low incident rate of
inaccurate pricing or products,
currently better than the 95%
target.
Billing Accuracy
Monthly invoice is
complete and correct,
submitted on time
(based on summary
report)
99% or
higher
Number of accurate
invoices received on time
/ total number of invoices
Semi-annually
Hire additional admin and
accounting staff to review the
process and content of Purchase
Order receipt to Invoice
generation to ensure inaccurate
products are not shipped and
invoices accurately reflect
products ordered. Invoice
accuracy is currently 99%.
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73
Timely Reports
ability to provide all
required reports in a
timely manner:
Indicates number and
extent of delinquent
reports
95% or
higher
Number of days during
which no reports
delinquent / total number
of days in reporting
period
Monthly
Hire additional contract personnel
if reports cannot be generated
timely using the current staff. DSI
already generates the exact reports
requested in the RFP with little
non-automated intervention. Most
reports are completed and sent
prior to their due date, none are
sent late.
Customer
Satisfaction
Surveying
ability to consistently
provide customer
satisfaction surveys
95% or
higher
Number of Authorized
Users surveyed with last
invoice / Number of last
invoices issued
Quarterly
Hire a third party firm to perform
these services quarterly should
DSI be unable to do it with our
current marketing staff. As part of
our Certified Partner Status, Cisco
already performs this separately
from DSI’ survey campaigns to
ensure we are meeting customer
expectations. In addition to
quarterly campaigns, a link to DSI
survey site is also sent out
periodically with quotes, invoices,
and email correspondence.
Customer
Satisfaction
ability to consistently
confirm that they have
provided customers with
measurably good service
95% or
higher
Number of customer
satisfaction surveys
resulting in an overall
rating of “Good” or better
/ Total number of
customer satisfaction
surveys issued
Quarterly
Add or replace personnel who
consistently fail to meet
performance levels and escalation
guidelines. Because DSI fosters a
working environment where staff
is rewarded for their efforts, we
provide familiarity to our
customers which increase their
satisfaction with our services. For
example a vast majority of our
corporate sales staff has been with
DSI for over five years.
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74
4.7 Proposed Pricing
Hardware and Software
DSI is offering a 2% discount off our entire Online Store Catalog. Our Online Store can access via the
following link:
http://www.disyssolutions.com/store.htm
Click to enter as a guest user to see DSI’s Online Store Price.
DSI Online Store Pricing
DSI has an online store similar to most high volume technology product providers. DSI uses ecommerce software powered by a company called VARStreet. VARStreet is a leading provider of
business systems, tools and information. Their partners include all the 1st tier distribution companies
such as Synnex, TechData, IngramMicro, Cisco, HP, IBM, and others. These
distributors/manufacturers are the largest information technology distributors and currently offer the
best pricing for information technology products. Via an ftp file link, the online store software
automatically goes to these companies’ website and uploads all active products, cost, list price,
availability, and product specifications to VARStreet daily. This process allows DSI to offer our
customers the most current products at the most competitive pricing through an e-commerce ordering
tool.
DSI maintains an online Global Catalog Price List with standard margins at a discount off the
manufacture list price, or above the lowest acquisition cost available at any of our distributors. Normal
prices are referred to as “DSI Online Store” or “Guest User”. The normal price we charge to
customers without a negotiated contract is the price shown when a customer enters the store as a guest
user, shown below. Customers who do not have negotiated contract pricing with DSI are provided
with our online catalog (guest price). Customers with negotiated contract pricing have their own
personal web store created by DSI reflecting the discounts of our regular online store pricing as
January 31, 2012
75
Help Desk / Consulting / Installation / Training
DSI can provide the fee based services stated below.
Product
Category
Product
Number
Product Description
Pricing
Description
Price
Hourly Fee
$60.00
Hourly Fee
$75.00
Hourly Fee
$85.00
Hourly Fee
$100.00
(Product Design, De-Install/Re-Install, Maintenance Support, Training during
normal business hours - 8AM to 5PM Monday through Friday excluding
holidays) will be responsible for, but is not limited to, simple installation of
commercial IT products, PC’s, printers and scanners.
Services
PS-TECH- 1
Education: Minimum of A+ Certification.
Experience: Minimum 1-year of general experience
Duties: Simple installation of Commercial IT products, PC’s, printers and
scanners; Supports a TECH 2 or higher as required. Performs other duties as
assigned.
holidays) will be responsible for, but is not limited to, installing or repairing
PC’s, printers and parts such as modems, CD ROMs, floppy drives, etc.
Services
PS-TECH-2
Education: Minimum of A+ Certification and at least 1 certificate of a hardware
manufacturer’s training and authorization for PC’s.
Experience: Minimum 3-years of general experience
Duties: Repair of or Installation of PC’s, printers and parts such as modems, CD
ROMs, floppy drives, etc.; Supports a TECH 3 or higher as required. Performs
other duties as assigned.
holidays) will be responsible for, but is not limited to, installing or repairing
PC’s, printers and parts such as modems, CD ROMs, floppy drives, etc. as well
as installation of standard operating systems, low level debug of standard
operating system problems.
Services
PS-TECH- 3
Education: Minimum of A+ Certification and at least 1 certificate of an
operating system manufacturer’s training and authorization.
Experience: Minimum 3-years of general experience.
Duties: Installation or repair of PC’s, printers and parts such as modems, CD
ROMs, floppy drives, etc.; Installation of standard operating systems; Low level
debug of standard operating system problems; Supports a TECH 4 as required.
Performs other duties as assigned.
holidays) will be responsible for, but is not limited to, low level debug of server
operating systems problems, and installation or repair of server components on
PC’s and servers.
Services
PS-TECH- 4
Education: Minimum of A+ Certification and at least 1 certificate of a
manufacturer’s training and authorization for Operating Systems, Servers and
PCs, MCP or CNA.
Experience: Minimum 5-years of general experience
Duties: Installation of standard operating systems; Installation of server
operating systems; Low level debug of standard and server operating system
problems; Perform hardware repair of servers and PCs; Supports a System
Engineer as required. Performs other duties as assigned.
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Product
Category
Product Number
Product Description
Pricing
Description
Price
Hourly Fee
$105.00
Hourly Fee
$150.00
Hourly Fee
$170.00
(Product Design, De-Install/Re-Install, Maintenance Support,
Training during normal business hours - 8AM to 5PM Monday
through Friday excluding holidays) will be responsible for, but is not
limited to, being able to add clients, debug client connection problems
and set client profiles.
Education: Minimum of MCP, CNA, CCNA, or CCDA.
Services
PS-ENGR-1
Experience: Minimum 3-years of general experience.
Duties: Add clients; Debug client connection problems; Design,
install, support, and operate a wireless LAN solution; Configure
WLAN products including access points, bridges, client devices and
accessories; Perform a site survey covering WLAN; Set client
profiles; Support a Network Engineer 2 or higher as required.
limited to, being able to consult with customers, design, implement,
debug and maintain non-enterprise networks. Has cross platform
experience and possesses a good knowledge of networking.
Education: Minimum of MCSE, CNE, CCNP, or CCDP.
Services
PS-ENGR- 2
Experience: Minimum 5-years of general experience cross platform
experience and possess a good knowledge of networking.
Duties: Consult with customers, design, implement, debug and
maintain non-enterprise networks; Design, install, support, and
operate a wireless LAN solution; Configure WLAN products
including access points, bridges, client devices and accessories;
Perform a site survey covering WLAN; Supports a Networking
Engineer 3 or higher as required. Performs other duties as assigned.
debug and maintain low-level enterprise networks. Has cross platform
experience and possesses a good knowledge of networking. May have
training in one or more specialized aspect of networking.
Services
PS-ENGR- 3
Education: Is trained and certified by a manufacture of hardware Compaq ASE, IBM PSE or HP Star is trained and certified by a
manufacture operating system - MCSE or CNE. May have training in
one or more specialized aspect of networking.
Experience: Minimum 5-years of general experience cross platform
experience and possess a good knowledge of networking.
Duties: minimum 5-years of general experience cross platform
experience and possess a good knowledge of networking; Supports a
Networking Engineer 4 or higher as required. Performs other duties as
assigned.
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Product
Category
Product Number
Product Description
Pricing
Description
Price
Hourly Fee
$200.00
Hourly Fee
$230.00
debug and maintain high-level enterprise networks. Has cross
platform experience and possesses a thorough knowledge of
networking and internetworking. Has training in one or more
specialized aspect of networking.
Services
PS-ENGR-4
Education: Is trained and certified by a manufacture of hardware Compaq ASE, IBM PSE or HP Star or is trained and certified by a
manufacturer operating system - MCSE, CNE, CCSP, CCIP, or
CCIE. Has training in one or more specialized aspect of networking.
Experience: Minimum 5-years of cross platform experience and
possesses a thorough knowledge of networking. May have project
management experience.
Duties: Consult with customers, design, implement, debug and
maintain high-level enterprise networks; Scale IP addresses with
advanced Network Address translation, manage network performance
using queuing and compression, configure PPP, PAP, CHAP, and
interVLAN routing in a network containing
both routers and switchers; Supports a Networking Engineer 5 or
higher as required. Performs other duties as assigned.
limited to, consults with customers, designs, implements, debugs and
maintains high-level enterprise networks, has cross platform
experience and possesses a thorough knowledge of networking and
internetworking; has specialization in Networking Storage, VPN or
Security.
Services
PS-ENGR-5
Education: Is trained and certified by a manufacture of hardware Compaq ASE, IBM PSE or HP Star or is trained and certified by a
manufacture operating system - MCSE, CNE, CCSP, CCIP, or CCIE.
Has training in one or more specialized aspect of networking.
Experience: Minimum 5-years of cross platform experience and
possesses a thorough knowledge of networking. May have project
management experience.
Duties: Implement complete security solutions, secure network access
using Cisco IOS Software and Cisco PIX and Adaptive Security
Appliance (ASA) Firewall Technologies, operate and monitor Cisco
IOS Software and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) technologies to
prevent, understand, and respond to intrusion attempts, configure
VPNs across shared public networks using Cisco IOS Software and
Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrator technologies. Performs other
duties as assigned.
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Product
Category
Product Number
Product Description
Pricing
Description
Price
Hourly Fee
$150.00
Hourly Fee
$200.00
limited to voice/data switching/routing infrastructures, voice/data
transport technologies, voice systems architectures, and/or computer
telephony integration. Incumbent has experience in implementation,
support, and problem resolution within telecommunications systems,
networks, and/or converged voice/data systems and networks.
Services
PS-TELE- 1
Education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in
telecommunications, information systems, or related engineering
field; certification in at least one network-based telecommunications
system; and certification in at least one network infrastructure
technology and/or operating system.
Experience: Minimum two years’ experience including at least one
year in telecommunications (key systems and PBX’s) networks and
systems design, implementation, and support; and one year voice/data
or data-only network design, implementation, and support. Must have
two years experience in telecommunications and/or data networks
Layer 1 infrastructure or equivalent certification.
Duties: Provides implementation and support for telecommunications
systems, voice/data (converged)
systems and networks, CTI applications; Consults with customers
regarding system requirements, design issues, and performance
expectations; Supports a Senior Telecommunications Engineer Level
2 or higher as required. Performs other duties as assigned.
limited to, multiple aspects of telecommunications or voice/data
(converged) systems and networks. Incumbent is also specialized at
least two of the following technology areas: voice/data
switching/routing infrastructures, voice/data transport technologies,
voice systems architectures, and/or computer telephony integration.
telecommunications, information systems, or related engineering
field; CCVP, CCSP, or CCIP
Services
PS-TELE- 2
Experience: Minimum four years’ telecommunications and/or
voice/data experience including at least one year in
telecommunications (key systems and PBX’s) networks and systems
design, implementation, and support, and one-year voice/data or dataonly network design, implementation, and support.
Duties: Designs and provides implementation and support for
telecommunications systems, voice/data (converged) systems and
networks; Consults with customers regarding system requirements,
design, and performance expectations. Supports a Senior
Telecommunications Engineer Level 3 as required. Performs other
duties as assigned.
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Product
Category
Product Number
Product Description
Pricing
Description
Price
Hourly Fee
$250.00
ADD TO
HOURLY
RATE of
NORMAL
BUSINESS
HOUR
SERVICE
$50.00
(Product Design, De-Install/Re-Install, Maintenance Support, Training
during normal business hours - 8AM to 5PM Monday through Friday
excluding holidays) will be responsible for, but is not limited to, multiple
aspects of telecommunications or voice/data (converged) systems and
networks. Incumbent is also specialized at least two of the following
technology areas: voice/data switching/routing infrastructures, voice/data
transport technologies, voice systems architectures, and/or computer
telephony integration. Incumbent has in-depth experience in
implementation, support, and problem resolution within
telecommunications systems, networks, and/or converged voice/data
systems and networks and is capable of supervising teams of
Telecommunications Engineers, specialization in IP Communications.
telecommunications, information systems, or related engineering field;
CCIE.
Services
PS-TELE-3
Experience: Minimum four years’ telecommunications and/or voice/data
experience including at least one
year in telecommunications (key systems and PBX’s) networks and
systems design, implementation, and support, and one-year voice/data or
data-only network design, implementation,
and support.
Duties: Designs and provides implementation and support for
telecommunications systems, voice/data (converged) systems and
networks; Design IP Telephony multi-service network solutions, design a
scalable, converged network using QOS, Cisco Call Manager clustering,
H.323, MGCP, or SIP signaling protocols,
assess the scope of work required to integrate legacy TDM PBXs and
voice mail systems into an existing data network; Consults with customers
regarding system requirements, design, and performance expectations.
Services
After Hours
Support
On-site maintenance service on a 24-hour per day, seven-day per week
basis (including all holidays) outside the hours of 8-5 M-F with a one hour
response time and critical repair time. Critical repair time shall be defined
as equipment repair occurring within 4 hours after notification of the
problem. Includes labor and parts.
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Below are some of the categories and rates under which DSI can provide consulting and staff
augmentation services:
Labor Category Straight Premium Program Manager $ 146.00 $ 175.20 Project Manager Sr. Telecommunications Analyst Sr. Telecommunications Specialist $ 131.00 $ 101.00 $ 101.00 $ 157.20 $ 121.20 $ 121.20 Testing Specialist $ 101.00 $ 109.20 Training Specialist/Instructor $ 101.00 $ 121.20 Sr. Systems Engineer $ 101.00 $ 121.20 Systems Engineer $ 101.00 $ 121.20 Sr. Systems Analyst Sr. Information Technology Architect $ 101.00 $ 121.00 $ 121.20 $ 145.20 Sr. Information Technology Planner Office Automation Specialist $ 121.00 $ 71.00 $ 145.20 $ 97.20 Help Desk Manager $ 91.00 $ 109.20 Sr. Help Desk Specialist $ 81.00 $ 97.20 Jr. Help Desk Specialist $ 71.00 $ 85.20 System Administrator $ 121.00 $ 145.20 Project Control Specialist $ 107.00 $ 128.40 Program Administration Specialist $ 109.00 $ 130.80 Sr. Business Process Consultant Telecommunications Engineer Sr. Telecommunications Consultant $ 116.00 $ 86.00 $ 101.00 $ 139.20 $ 103.20 $ 121.20 Telecommunications Systems Analyst $ 96.00 $ 115.20 Network Manager Network Administrator $ 106.00 $ 101.00 $ 127.20 $ 121.20 Sr. Network Technician $ 101.00 $ 121.20 Jr. Network Technician $ 96.00 $ 115.20 Network Security Engineer $ 110.00 $ 132.00 Licensed Master Electrician $ 111.00 $ 133.20 Journeyman Electrician $ 96.00 $ 115.20 Electricians Helper $ 76.00 $ 91.20 Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Training
Instruction
$225/hour
$145/hour
Consulting
Executive Level
$225/hour
Basic Level
$145/hour
Custom Course Development
$145/hour
Publications
Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010
$14.95 to $30.14 each
Courseware Manuals
(Printed and bound workbooks)
Documentation Templates
Per Site License Manuscript (includes all training
$1,400.00 per entity*
materials for one Course)
Executive Level
Basic Level
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81
Pricing Example
Public Cloud - 5GHz, 10GB, 500GB
Committed Resources
Public Cloud Computing Resources: 5GHz/10GB RAM
Quantity
CPU Resources
Memory Resources
1
5 GHz
10 GB
Public Cloud Storage Resources: 500GB
Quantity
Fiber Storage Resources
1
500 GB
Network and Security
Public Cloud Security Resources
Quantity
Security Resources
Security Resources
1
Public Cloud HA Utility Firewall
2 x Public Cloud Software Client-LAN VPN
Public Cloud Network Resources
Quantity
Network Resources
Public IP Resources
Private IP Resources
Private IP Resources
1
Public Cloud HA Utility Load Balancer
5 x Public IP(s)
Private IP's (DMZ/27)
Private IP's (INT/28)
Bandwidth
Connectivity - Committed Bandwidth
Quantity
Bandwidth
1
1 Mbps
Total Non-Recurring Charges
$0
Total Monthly-Recurring Charges
$2,949.50
Monthly Services - Hosting
$2,232.00
Monthly Services - Network
$62.50
Monthly Services - Security
$0.00
Monthly Services - Storage
$625.00
January 31, 2012
82
Virtual Server
Pricing Grid – Unreserved Capacity
Per Hour Usage Charges – Unreserved Capacity
SC Operating System 32-bit Configuration
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0
Windows Server (2003 and 2006 Versions)
CP Operating System 32-bit Configuration
Customer Provided Linux operating System
SC Operating System 64-bit Configuration
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0
Windows Server (2003 and 2006 Versions)
CP Operating System 64-bit Configuration
Copper
$.1875
$.1425
$.150
Bronze
$.2175
$.1725
$.180
Silver
$.345
$.300
$.360
Gold
$.540
$.495
$.555
$.1125
$.1425
$.270
$.465
Copper
$.450
$.405
$.510
Bronze
$.600
$.555
$.600
Silver
$.720
$.675
$.750
Gold
$1.11
$1.065
$1.44
Platinum
$2.190
$2.085
$2.985
$.375
$.525
$.645
$1.035
$2.055
Persistent Storage
Charge per GA per hour
.000225
Storage Input and Output Access Requests
Requests per million per portion thereof
$.165
Internet Data Transfer
Rate Tier for Monthly Terabyte (TB) Usage
For transfer amounts up to and including the 10th TB
For transfer amounts from the 10th TB up to and including the 50th TB
For transfer amount from the 50th TB up to and including the 150th TB
For transfer amounts above the 150th TB
Per GB Charge
$.225
$.165
$.135
$.120
Reserved IP Address
Each Reserved IP Address
For each reserved IP address
Charge per hour
$.015
Virtual Desktop
Feature
Contract Term
vCPU
RAM
Disk Space
VM Type
HDX
Billing
SLA
Sold in blocks of:
Pricing
Silver
Gold
Trial = 3 mos (with 3 mo renewal option)
Production IBM Cloud = 36.60 months
1
1
1
1GB
1GB
2GB
7.5GB
10GB
15GB
Non-Persistent
Persistent or
Persistent or
Non-Persistent
Non-Persistent
Option
Included
Included
No one-time charge: pr VM per month. Billing starts after on-boarding
99.5% Availability
50 VMs
50 VMs
30 VMs
$54/month per VM
$72/month per VM
$100.50/month per VM
Bronze
January 31, 2012
83
5. Required Forms
To be deemed responsive to this RFP, Service Providers must complete in detail, all Proposal
Forms listed in this Section 4, items numbered e through j.
This section contains the following required forms
 Addenda Receipt Confirmation and RFP Exceptions
 Proposal Submission
 Pricing Worksheet
 Non-Discrimination Provision
 Vendor References
January 31, 2012
84
Section 7
Attachment One
DISYS Solutions, Inc
Company Name: ______________________________________________________
Provide an organization name, address, contact name, and contact telephone number for
five (5) customers of comparable size and scope of service that your Company has been
under contract with to provide Technology Products and Associated Services for during the
past two (2) years:
1-NAME OF FIRM: Maryland Department of Information Technology
ADDRESS OF FIRM: 45 Calvert St, Room 445A, Annapolis, MD 21401
CONTACT PERSON: Mike Balderson
TELEPHONE NUMBER: (410) 260-7549, [email protected]
FAX NUMBER: (410) 974-5615
2-NAME OF FIRM: PEPPM
ADDRESS OF FIRM: 90 Lawton Lane, Milton, PA 17847
CONTACT PERSON:Dave Manney
TELEPHONE NUMBER: (570) 523-1155 x2174, [email protected]
FAX NUMBER: N/A
3-NAME OF FIRM: University Systems of Maryland
ADDRESS OF FIRM: 3501 University Blvd East, Rm ICC-3120, Adelphi, MD 20783
CONTACT PERSON: Tamara Petronka
FAX NUMBER: (240) 684-5131
4-NAME OF FIRM: Virginia Information Technologies Agency
ADDRESS OF FIRM: 11751 Meadowville Lane, Chester, VA 23836
CONTACT PERSON: James MacKenzie
FAX NUMBER: (804) 416-6361
5- NAME OF FIRM: Atlanta Public Schools
ADDRESS OF FIRM: 130 Trinity Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303
CONTACT PERSON: Chad Zemer
FAX NUMBER: (404) 802-1404
TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS AND ASSOCIATED SERVICES
RFP# 269-2011-065
December 2, 2011
50
Attachment 1 – Marketing and Reporting
Attachment 1.A – Marketing
Proposals must include in detail how the Service Provider plans to market and service all
Participating Public Agencies as it relates to the CCPA as Attachment #1 to the Proposal.
Marketing/Business Plan
DSI already has an established relationship with numerous government and education customers
in multiple States through our many contract vehicles. DSI’s sales team will market HP products
to these existing customers. In addition, each Sales Team Member will be provided a list of
potential targets within the state. It will be the responsibility of each Sales Team Member to
determine the size of that particular entities purchase ability and rank these according to size.
Their goal will then be to ensure the account is aware of all the products, pricing, and services
available to them. Within our staff, each individual will contact and meet with their assigned
accounts. In addition the top twenty customers will be visited often by the DSI.
DSI will focus on identified clients who have not purchased the products provided by DSI in this
contract, or have old versions of products being offered. The goal then is to convince them of
the cost efficiency of upgrading their existing equipment (by use of trade-in programs. etc.), or to
switch to products because of their low total cost of ownership, excellent warranties, awards, and
trade-in programs.
DSI has developed a general marketing plan for our National and Statewide contracts. The plan
is of a general nature and will focus on how to gain relationships quickly and in an orderly
fashion. Specific products and services will be discussed upon award. Among these will be how
DSI will gain recognition and the major market share of the opportunities available in the
territory. Amore specific plan can be tailored to meet the required of this program.
Contract Marketing Plan Timeline
Marketing Efforts for Award + 1 week:
Bid/Contract Department
 Copy Contract for Administrative File and Sales Department.
 Highlight Specific terms and conditions from RFP, proposal response,
and contract. Meet with Sales Director to discuss.
 Schedule Meeting with Sales, Administrative, and Technical
Departments to discuss contract requirements.
 Schedule Meeting with Administrative Departments to discuss
contract requirements and personnel issues.
 Assign Contract Page and Contract Pricing Info to Tech Department
for web posting.
Administrative Departments
 Hire additional staff and/or re-assign specific Sales Staff if needed.
January 31, 2012
85


Provide Receptionist with information on Sales Staff responsibilities.
Provide Accounting with reporting and invoicing requirements.
Marketing Efforts
 Marketing Department to create flyer for email.
 National Accounts Manager to request email or mail addresses of
customers to send flyers with contract info to include online support
info.
 Marketing Department to create catalog containing contacts, policies,
and pricing. Submit to Tech Department for posting.
Sales Department
 Dedicated Sales Staff to call customers as well as other current local
contracts and introduce company and contract opportunity.
Technical Department
 Create customized web page for customers to include hot links to
agencies, manufacturer sites, online store, and contract details.
 National technical personnel will be provided with contract
requirements such as technical support, warranty offering, fee-based
services and participant locations.
Marketing Efforts for Award + 2 weeks:
Sales Department – Sales and Marketing Staff to implement the following Action, Research,
and Promotion Agendas from the Marketing Plan:
ACTION Agenda
A. DSI has separate Dedicated Sales Teams (3 personnel on each team), one of which
will be assigned to CCPA contract. The Sales Team Leader will be required to
develop marketing plans consistent with the DSI Marketing Plan format but taking
into account their individual States and territories.
B. Contact manufacturer and products Account Representatives in each area to develop
special promotions, meet with participants, discuss training and technology needs,
and obtain knowledge about competitor contracts as well as discuss ways they can
help promote the Master Agreement to customers in their area they call upon. This
will put more feet on the street pushing both current participants and prospective
agencies.
C. Begin Phone Campaign Plan to introduce company, verify proper agency contacts,
provide contract benefits, and discuss ways we can assist them. A major part of this
action is also to record information, which will be used in the research step later.
Detailed customer information will be recorded and logged in a database. Important
types of information will include their average computer spending, major brands
purchased, buying quarter and if they purchase all applicable products from the
Master Agreement and why they don’t.
January 31, 2012
86
D. Prepare Onsite Visit Campaign. Initially both government and education agencies
with the largest sales will be contacted for on-site visits. Once visits are completed
then each participating agency in geographic order will be personally contacted.
RESEARCH Agenda
A. Each team will review the research provided during the phone and onsite visits and
determine a course of action for any items that may need addressing. For example
DSI would research the reasons customers do not buy all their items off the Master
Agreement. This information will allow DSI to ensure it takes steps to resolve any
reasons a participant would not want to purchase from the Master Agreement.
B. Current DSI contracts will be reviewed and a campaign to contact each contracting
agency will be implemented. This campaign will involve informing these agencies of
our purchasing contracts, and discussing ways they can participate.
C. Research will need to be conducted to determine what areas have Trade-Shows we
can attend and their frequency, what means of communication customers prefer based
on their area, and what type of laws prevent advertising and promotions.
PROMOTION Agenda
A. DSI will develop campaigns that will visually advertise the new Master Agreement,
show promotion, highlight value-added tools, and provide information on how to use
the resources provided by DSI. These campaigns will include email blasts, mailers,
and trade organization advertising.
B. DSI will develop various promotions for participants to take advantage of. These will
be advertised using email blasts, in our online store promotions corner, on the
dedicated contract website, and as a pop-up when participants log in to DSI online.
C. To keep current Master Agreement participants and gain new ones DSI will
aggressively advertise pricing as well as value added benefits. This type of
advertisement will show the contract benefits such as pricing, delivery schedule, and
free support offerings in comparison to other contracts and brands. This type of
promotion is effective for DSI as well as HP because we will constantly be evaluating
what offerings need to be increased to keep and gain participants. DSI will also
advertise promotions, trade-shows, training and other offers.
Marketing Efforts- for Contract Life:
Access to New Technology
DSI has procedures in place that allow us to provide access to new technology through
loaned demonstration equipment, innovative pilot projects, beta testing projects, grant
programs such as e-rate, manufacture direct sponsored grants, give-away programs, and other
creative means. The dedicated Sales Team will be the point of contact for any agency
requests.
January 31, 2012
87
Information Regarding New Products
Utilizing our large customer database, DSI sends invitations via email and direct mail to
customers regarding upcoming Manufacturer “New Product Preview” as well as Technology
Exhibits held nationally. DSI attends/sponsors an average of one show every two months.
DSI has been very active in allowing functional communication of new product releases to
the education community. DSI will continue to attend trade shows in areas where customer
accounts are located.
Technical Product Information
Our Outside Sales Representative is able to perform training sessions along with a
representative from the Manufacturer. It is in our best interest as a company to provide such
things as technical information and briefs on all products offered, via area workshops, minitraining sessions, or presentations to provide valuable technical information for “buy”
decisions.
Notification of Withdrawal of Support/End-of-Life Options
DSI Sales Staff is required re-certify in all the major brand product lines every 6 months. DSI
Management and Owners ensure that DSI sales and technical staff are fully certified and
current on knowledge of HP’s product line.
DSI has a Promotions Department who is responsible for ensuring that all of the information
communicated in these newsletters is forwarded to the DSI Operational Departments.
Information is sent to the Sales Department (whom normally has already received the
newsletter from the manufacturer), so they will be able to inform their customers.
Information is also sent to the Marketing Department so email blasts can be sent out to
customers in our database. In this way all of our current customers are informed of changes
in product availability and “trade-in” or “trade-up” of existing equipment promotions.
Product information regarding “end-of-life” projections for product-lines is communicated to
avoid delay in customer orders.
Documentation
In addition to documentation available online, DSI will provide a supply of descriptive
literature to agencies considering purchase of any contract equipment. This descriptive
literature will include the glossy, marketing type literature, as well as product brochures, CDROM tutorials and product configurations. The Outside Sales Reps assigned to call on
customers will bring product updates with them on visits. All product shipped will include
standard product manuals or CD-Rom based documentation, which, if missing, may also be
obtained through the Sales Team.
DSI will promote HP TSG products to current customers using the following steps from
Action Agenda Section of our Marketing Plan. These steps are also used in the process to
convince prospective agencies to purchase HP TSG products from DSI. Also refer to the
detailed information already provided above.
January 31, 2012
88
Step 1: Identify all possible customers of HP TSG products – establish list of customers
and have outside sales reps meet with customers personally on site.
Step 2: Establish Rapport with Customer – Via onsite visits and phone campaigns. The
goal will be to discuss what the customer wants to achieve from a purchasing
prospective.
Step 3: Determine Customer Objective and Situational Factors - Focus on what the
customer wants to achieve and those factors in the environment that will influence
these results.
Step 4: Develop a Customer Action Plan – by making sure that we can achieve what the
customer wants.
Step 5: Obtaining Customer Commitment – By agreeing that the customer will purchase
HP TSG products from DSI.
Contacting Agencies by Territory
DSI Sales Staff performs the following minimum functions related to contacting customers:
Each inside sales person must make contact with at least 10 customers every day for proactive
sales calls. They are required to learn about individual profiles of each in order to help suggest
products that will fit into their environment. Try to determine sales opportunities for new
projects or replacement projects. Status of customers’ warranty and services should be reviewed
with each customer. A list of territories and contacts to make must be kept current.
Follow up on all sales quotes and carry out analysis for better results and profitability. It is
important to find out why a customer decided not to purchase the products and services they
were looking for from DSI.
Our Outside Sales representatives are required to do 16 appointments every week. The Outside
Sales Reps must go through the complete list of accounts to see the accounts that they have not
visited. They should strike a good balance between visits to major accounts and smaller/new
accounts. Inside sales representatives are called upon to help in setting appointments for the
Outside Sales Representatives.
Current DSI Contracts
In order to keep current customers and gain new ones, DSI will aggressively advertise pricing.
DSI advertising will include email blasts, trade shows, outbound sales calls, on-site visits, and
flyer mailings that will show the value added items in place and what other contracts have. This
type of promotion is effective for DSI as well as HP because we will constantly be evaluating
where the prices need to be to keep and gain customers.
DSI currently holds multiple statewide contracts in multiple states. Part of the Research Agenda
Section of DSI’ Marketing Plan will be to contact each of the contracting agencies and
participating contract agencies to inform them of the benefits to purchasing IT Hardware and
January 31, 2012
89
Software products from DSI. DSI will emphasize the cost-saving via the extra services and
support customers receive.
New Business Development
Developing new business leads to offer government and education agencies the benefits of
purchasing IT Hardware and Software products for all their technology purchasing needs will
involve a lot of research. Exactly where the sales and marketing staff will focus their energy will
be spelled out in the Research Agenda of the Marketing Plan.
A major part of this research will be to first record the contract vehicles used to purchase IT
Products. At a minimum the information to be recorded will be the prospective new customer
name, their website link, purchasing contact info, technology department contact info, IT budget
for the year, and what means they currently use to purchase products.
Marketing Tools
Within the first quarter, to develop product awareness and leads we plan mailing two or more
flyers each month to potential users. Additionally, we will blanket the purchasing sites with fax
broadcasts to increase our joint name recognition, product and contract awareness and to
stimulate immediate sales. We will also plan strategic e-mail announcements of products and
opportunities. DSI current database holds over 10,000 Procurement and IT Professional
Customers including 100s in the state of North Carolina.
DSI has been successful in many State territories by utilizing flyers for special products or
promotions. We intend to utilize direct mail pieces to announce the contract as well as follow up
monthly highlighting special offerings or products.
DSI will approach the initial marketing efforts using a mix of: flyers, fax broadcasts, e-mail
blasts, person to person outside sales, inside sales, telemarketing, and trade shows. As additional
support in developing product awareness and leads, we plan to establish a routine attendance at
various trade and or location shows. These will highlight product demonstrations and incentive
give a-ways to assist in opportunity development and awareness.
In addition to direct efforts, DSI has established a web presence that will highlight the contract
and allow investigation of the products, company contact and purchasing from the web.
January 31, 2012
90
Attachment 1.B – Reporting
Reporting Capabilities
DISYS understands US Communities Reporting Procedures as detailed in Attachment IIA – page
28. DISYS uses ACCPAC Pro by Sage Software for our internal accounting and operational
activities. The following is a list of the various modules of the software relative to performance
of work as a contractor for USC.
System Manager; General Ledger; Accounts Receivable; Accounts Payable; Inventory
Control; Order Entry; Purchase Orders; Project Accounting; Payroll; EFT Direct Deposit;
Job Cost; Customer Connect; Production Entry; Work Orders; Shop Control; Serial
Control; Lot Control; Bills of Materials; Bills of Lading; Multicurrency; Customization
Manager
ACCPAC Pro Series accounting software allows us to perform document tracking for each of
our contracts and allows us to tailor our reports based on agency needs. DISYS has the capability
to print almost any type of report using data created from Sage Pro, including the reports
required by USC. All reports will be generated in accordance with the agreed upon electronic
formats and within the required timeframes as specified in the RFP.
ACCPAC Pro Series’ exclusive DataDriller™ technology delivers sophisticated multilevel drilldown functionality. DISYS can display data in any order and customize it to produce unlimited
report data. For security of the data the software allows us to assign permissions and security
codes. Pro Series delivers time-tested accounting functionality that ensures high-level audit
control. The following screen shots show various fields which can be queried to produce reports.
Maintaining Records
January 31, 2012
91
DISYS currently keeps accurate records both in soft and hard copy formats for audit purposes.
In addition, for government agencies that may request information on past transactions DISYS
must keep proper records for financial auditing as required by law and for the health of our
business. USC has the right to audit books as required to ensure accuracy of data provided.
DISYS currently generates several reports for our various contracts including but not limited to,
reports to track minority participation, sales by brand, and sales by agency. DISYS accomplishes
this by assigning key fields to each account and product code generated, as well as tagging each
order with specific contract tags. By doing this we are able to generate reports by many different
criteria.
Timeliness of Reports
On the 1st day of each month a designated staff member runs through a documented list of
reports which must be generated for each agency contract. The respective reports are then
forward to the Sales Director, who will then forward them to the appropriate agency contact via
the required contract method (e-mail, fax, mail, etc).
Types of Reports
Metric Report – Report of various performance metrics
Fill Rate Accuracy Metric (expressed as percentage of orders that were
completely filled as ordered)
Invoice Accuracy Metric (expressed as percentage of invoices that were prepared
correctly and matched to order)
Average Order Time (the average time to book, ship and receive order)
Average Backorder Time (the average time an item is on backorder)
Average Backorder Size (the average # of items on backorder)
Customer Satisfaction (level of customer service satisfaction experience)
Customer Service Calls Return Time
List of Discontinued Items
Sales Report – Report of hardware/software sales
Contract Number
Customer Number
Agency Name
Purchase Date
Purchase Order #
Invoice Date
Invoice #
Manufacturer Name
Manufacturer Part #
Product Description
Serial Number
Subcategory Type (Cables, Monitors, PDAs)
Supplier Part # (if different)
Unit of Measure (Each, Lot)
January 31, 2012
92
-
Quantity of Measure
Quantity Purchased
Price Index Type (MSRP, DISYS Catalog)
List (Index) Price per Unit
Discount
Purchase Price Per Unit
Extended Price
Ship To Name
Ship To Street Address
Ship To City
Ship To State
Ship To Zip Code
IT Services Supplier Reporting – Report of Consultant placements
Invoice Date
Invoice #
Purchase Order Date
Purchase Order #
Agency Name
Contractor Title and Level (Programmer-Analyst 1)
Contractor Category (Applications)
First Name of Contracted Personnel
Last Name of Contracted Personnel
Employee Company (if subcontracted)
# Hours Worked For This Month
Cumulative # Hours Worked From Beginning of Each Fiscal Year
Employee Pay Rate (Hourly)
Contractor Mark-Up %
Overall Bill Rate (Hourly)
Invoiced Amount – Current Month
Cumulative Invoiced Amount From Beginning of Each Fiscal Year
Start Date
End Date (if applicable)
MBE Reports – Report of Minority Subcontracting
Account number
Name of department / agency / institution
Vendor Name
FEIN
MBE status
Spend from account with Contractor
January 31, 2012
93
Sample Reports
Reports examples are included below.
High Spend Report with Discount Pricing Stated
State of Oregon
Monthly High Spend Report (Top 500 Items)
Peripherals
Supplier Name
Contact E-mail
Contact Phone
Report Start Date
Report End Date
Digital Intelligence System s Corp. (DISYS)
contracts@ disys.com
888-286-3896
July 1, 2005
July 31, 2005
Instructions:
1. Enter your company name, contact info, and the dates covered by this report above.
2. Please list the top 500 items purchased by the State ranked by highest spend
3. Fill in all the cells for each line-item purchased. Follow the example show n below .
Rank
Product Subcategory
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Product SKU Num ber
Mem ory
KVR133X72C2256
Mem ory
A0084549
Mem ory
SDCFX1024786
Power Supply and ProtPH8T3
Input Devices
9115300403
Input Devices
F8E813BLKPS2
Mem ory
KTMTP390X256
Printers
Q5927A
Mem ory
SDDR89A15
Input Devices
F8E814OPT
Cables
U002010R
Index Price
65.56
112.77
107.80
17.93
6.86
3.91
169.22
399.54
32.10
12.02
4.20
Discount
Offered
Actual Price
Charged
10.00%
6.00%
10.00%
8.00%
10.00%
5.00%
10.00%
6.00%
10.00%
5.00%
5.00%
59.00
106.00
97.02
16.50
6.17
3.71
152.30
375.57
28.89
11.42
3.99
Quantity
Ordered
100
98
27
25
25
25
16
14
12
10
10
Total Monthly
Am ount
Charged
5900.00
10388.00
2619.54
412.50
154.25
92.75
2436.80
5257.98
346.68
114.20
39.90
Total Monthly
VCAF
VCAF Rate
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
3.00%
Total Monthly
Am ount Charged
Less VCAF
177.00
311.64
78.59
12.38
4.63
2.78
73.10
157.74
10.40
3.43
1.20
5723.00
10076.36
2540.95
400.13
149.62
89.97
2363.70
5100.24
336.28
110.77
38.70
Monthly Sales by Product
State of Oregon
Monthly Usage Reports
Peripherals
Digital Intelligence Systems Corp. (DISYS)
[email protected]
888-286-3896
July 1, 2005
July 31, 2005
Supplier Name
Contact E-mail
Contact Phone
Report Start Date
Report End Date
Instructions:
1. Enter your company name, contact info, and the dates covered by this report above.
2. Fill in all the cells for each invoice (or customer order). Follow the example shown below.
3. Please ensure correct spelling of the Authorized Purchaser.
4. Please see the tab titled "Definitions" for definitions of column headings.
Line #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Customer
Account
Number
402794
402794
402794
402794
402794
402794
402794
402794
402794
402811
402812
Invoice Date
7/15/2005
7/28/2005
7/15/2005
7/15/2005
7/12/2005
7/31/2005
7/18/2005
7/27/2005
7/15/2005
7/12/2005
7/25/2005
Authorized
Purchaser
(ensure
correct
spelling)
Manufacturer
Name
OR DEPT. OCanon
OR DEPT. OD-Link
OR DEPT. OKingston
OR DEPT. OLacie
OR DEPT. OLogitech
OR DEPT. OMicrosoft
OR DEPT. OSeagate
OR DEPT. OTargus
OR DEPT. OViewSonic
OR DEPT. OLabtec
OR DEPT. OHP
Product Subcategory
Product SKU Number
Cameras
8403A001AA
Networking AccessoDSS8+
Memory
SD256
Optical and Storage 300806
Input Devices
9043530403
Input Devices
M2000001
Optical and Storage ST380011A
Other Peripherals DBUC02
Monitors
VG710B
Input Devices
9804210403
Printers
Q3669A
Product
Description Product Line Product Model Name/#
CANON P Cameras 8403A001AA
DLINK 8PONetworkingDSS8+
KINGSTO Memory SD256
LACIE 40GOptical and300806
LOGITECHInput Devic9043530403
MS NOTE Input DevicM2000001
SEAGATEOptical andST380011A
TARGUS UOther Peri DBUC02
VIEWSONMonitors VG710B
LABTEC GInput Devic9804210403
HP 4650N Printers Q3669A
January 31, 2012
Index Price
14.19
40.55
26.17
126.54
28.63
23.14
64.54
10.06
321.41
4.07
2070.59
Discount
Offered
6.00%
5.00%
10.00%
5.00%
10.00%
5.00%
5.00%
8.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%
Actual Price
Charged
13.34
38.53
23.56
120.22
25.77
21.99
61.32
9.26
308.56
3.87
1946.36
Quantity
Ordered
Total Extended
Price
2
2
2
3
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
26.68
77.06
47.12
360.66
25.77
21.99
61.32
9.26
308.56
15.48
1946.36
94
Warranty Status Tracking
Minority Spend
January 31, 2012
95
Performance Tracking
Invoice Amount Cumulative by Agency
January 31, 2012
96
Sales by Ship to City with Discount Pricing Stated
Sales by Ship to City with Discount Pricing Stated Sales by Ship to City with Discount
Pricing Stated
January 31, 2012
97
Appendix A – Infrastructure
Capabilities
January 31, 2012
Appendix B – Unified Security
January 31, 2012
Appendix C – Unified
Communications
January 31, 2012
Appendix D – Disaster Recovery and
Backup
January 31, 2012
Appendix E – Web Hosting
January 31, 2012
City of Charlotte
C
– Charllotte Cooperativee Purchasing Allliance
RFP# 269
9-2011-065 for Technology
T
Prod
ducts and Assocciated Services
C
Section 3.6.2 A – Cloud Services
s
e-As-A-S ervice
Infras tructure
The Public Cloud For more than a decad
de, we have b
been helpingg our clients eexploit the lattest technolo
ogies by leverraging custom‐built software
e and leadingg practices in
n design and operations tto maximize performancee and reduce risks. Many clients take further advan
ntage of ourr experience by engagingg our Professsional Services p
practices to so
olve for perfo
ormance tunin
ng, optimizat ion, disaster recovery, and
d security issu
ues. ompletes the Arrow Fusio
on hosting seervice suite w
with a uniqu
ue option allo
owing The Publiic Cloud™ co
clients to purchase com
mputing resources as a utiility service w
while leaving tthe Operatingg System layeer and up under each client’ss complete co
ontrol. This co
omprehensivve portfolio o
of hosting pro
oducts gives A
Arrow Fusion clie
ents the most flexible hostting platform
m options avaiilable. Architectture No single point of failu
ure ncy is our waay of life. By u
utilizing the latest techno logies we aree able to provide an Enterprise Redundan
Class infraastructure with every com
mponent workking in paralleel. Redundantt Cisco Firewaalls, Netscaler load balancerss, NIC’s, pow
wer supplies, 4Gbps SAN connectionss, and virtuaal SAN storage; literally every component of the Pub
blic Cloud is re
edundant and
d prepared too supply 100%
% uptime. W
Welcome to a cloud computing environment you can tru
ust with mission critical appplications. Request for Proposal
P
(RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
1
City of Charlotte
C
RFP# 269
T
Prod
C
Clusteringg Worrying about the business b
impaact of hardw
ware failures is a thing off the past. By virtualizingg your environment on Arrow
w Fusion technologies you immediatelyy benefit from
m fully redund
dant and clusstered resourcess. Server‐wastte is eliminate
ed, while peaace of mind reemains intactt. us Refresh Continuou
Through our partner relationshipss we are con
ntinually refreeshing infrastructure hard
dware to mitigate ust for indusstry needs, and make surre the most robust and rrelevant reso
ources potential failures, adju
By virtue of available back your environment.
e
o our uniqu e solution th
hese upgrades are comp
pleted seamlessly in the bacckground, ensuring that your y
environ ment is not only currentt, but also aalways available. More than just storage
e Gone are the days of renting space to dump you
ur files. With A
Arrow Fusion
n’s Public Clou
ud, you are giiven a complete computing e
environment with total co
ontrol over neetwork, serveer, and storage layers. Maanage firewall ru
ules, set reso
ource availability for missio
on critical serrvers, and maanage your d
data exactly aas you want to. Performance dustry No skimping. At everyy critical layer of infrastructure we proovide best‐off‐class resourrces, from ind
leading fiber SAN tech
hnology, to Gigabit G
netwo
ork backbonees, and robusst HP DL585 aand DL580 seervers packing th
he fastest pro
ocessing powe
er available.
Interface
e Deploy, Change, Delete
e Deploy a server in 5 m
minutes, not 5
5 hours. Usingg the intuitivee Public Cloud wizard, you
ur VM goes frrom a template to fully availaable computing resource in a matter off minutes. Preepare serverss in advance; while powered off, your resource pool re
emains unafffected, givingg you immediiate availabiliity when the need arises. Byy utilizing the Public Cloud
d interface yo
ou have the fflexibility of rresource conttrol unmatched by other cloud providerss. Simply shu
ut down the server to aallocate addittional processsors, memory, or pace. The parradigm of reb
building a servver from scrattch has shifteed. storage sp
N
No serious tecchnical skills rrequired TThe Public C
Cloud gives you total co
ontrol w
without a teechnical heaadache. Creaate a sserver, load yyour applications, and pub
blish it t o the interneet without to
ouching a nettwork ddevice, rackin
ng a server, o
or wasting hours in cconfiguration. Request for Proposal
P
(RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
2
City of Charlotte
C
RFP# 269
T
Prod
C
Automation ovisioning, firrewall The Public Cloud interacts with many virtual tecchnologies annd automatess network pro
settings, load balancin
ng configurattion, O/S Insttallation, storrage provisio
oning and mu
uch more. Yo
ou are ettings as‐is o
or tailor settinngs to fit yourr unique need
ds. given the freedom to leave these se
SLA Having a server online
e is useless if you cannot m
manage it. W
With the Public Cloud Conssole, we guarantee 99.5% avaailability to th
d it. he interface. A
Anytime, anyw
where, you hhave access w
when you need
Copy Servver With our easy serverr duplication functions you have thee ability to copy serverss for sudden needs, or create uniquee copies to speed along tthe already faast deployme
ent process. Anywhere
e Special so
oftware is nott required. Th
he environment is accessibble from any ssystem with aa web browseer and is compattible with the
e most popular flavors: IEE, Firefox, Saffari, and morre. Anywheree and anytimee, our system is available to ggive you the fflexibility and freedom youu need to acccess your systems. Request for Proposal
P
(RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
3
City of Charlotte
C
RFP# 269
T
Prod
C
Unique FFeatures Resourcess (Processors, Memory, an
nd Storage) Unlike oth
her clouds, A
Arrow Fusion’ss Public Cloud
d allows you to distributee your resourcces among seervers as you see fit. No lockked in processor/memory//storage conffigurations; aallocate thesee to each servver as needed, independentlyy of one anotther. Experien
nce bulk pow er without co
onstraints. Virtual Maachines The Publiic Cloud™ fro
om Arrow Fu
usion is currently the onnly cloud com
mputing platfform built fo
or the Enterprise
e utilizing VM
MWare ESX and VMWare Infrastructurre 3. Clients control this powerful platform from an e
easy‐to‐use web interface. Template Library es often deplo
oy a wide varriety of Windows, Linux, oor Solaris macchines to meeet a variety of user Companie
needs. Th
hese needs sttill exist when switching to t a virtualizeed environmeent and that is why we o
offer a vast library of these operating o
systtem template
es; just pick tthe OS temp
plate you preffer and build
d your virtual maachine in minutes. Copy Servver After doin
ng all the wo
ork to build the t perfect web w server, c onfiguration,, application load, and co
ontent load; whyy spend hourrs redoing it to t build yourr second. Witth the 3 step
ps on the Pub
blic Cloud yo
ou can have an e
exact copy of yyour server re
eady and waiiting. ISO Uploaad If you havve pre‐existin
ng ISOs or cusstom OS needs you have the freedom to upload an
nd install from
m the ISO of your choice ontto blank virtu
ual machiness. This is just one more w
way you gain ttotal freedom
m and control ovver your environment wh
hile removingg stress, wastted time, and
d hassle from
m your server‐build workflow. Network Load balancing, IP man
nagement, Ne
etwork Addre
ess Translatioon, VLAN segm
mentation, and custom firrewall rule sets are just the beginning of what you co
ontrol within your environ
nment. Enjoyy the same co
ontrol over yourr network that the Public C
Cloud™ offerss over your seervers. Pricing
g Structure
Pricing is monthly and based on the
e following vaariables: 
ources Compute Reso
Request for Proposal
P
(RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
4





o Enterprise Cloud Resource Bundle ‐ 1Ghz, 2GB MEM o Enterprise Cloud Resource Bundle ‐ 5Ghz, 10GB MEM o Enterprise Cloud Resource Bundle ‐ 10Ghz, 20GB MEM o Enterprise Cloud Resource Bundle ‐ 25Ghz, 50GB MEM o Enterprise Cloud Resource Bundle ‐ 50Ghz, 100GB MEM o Enterprise Cloud Resource Bundle ‐ 100Ghz, 200GB MEM Cloud LAN‐LAN VPN o Enterprise Cloud LAN‐LAN VPN: Initial Network + 1 x 1Mbps Tunnel o Enterprise Cloud LAN‐LAN VPN: Initial Network + 1 x 3Mbps Tunnel o Enterprise Cloud LAN‐LAN VPN: Initial Network + 1 x 6Mbps Tunnel o Enterprise Cloud LAN‐LAN VPN: Initial Network + 1 x 10Mbps Tunnel Network Resources o 1 Public Enterprise Cloud IP (Additional) o 5 Public Enterprise Cloud IP's (Additional) o 10 Public Enterprise Cloud IP's (Additional) o 25 Public Enterprise Cloud IP's (Additional) Storage Resources o 100GB Enterprise Cloud Fiber Storage o 250GB Enterprise Cloud Fiber Storage o 1000GB Enterprise Cloud Fiber Storage o 5000GB Enterprise Cloud Fiber Storage o 10000GB Enterprise Cloud Fiber Storage Bandwidth o Committed Bandwidth (1 to 50 Mbps) o Committed Bandwidth (51 to 100 Mbps) o Committed Bandwidth (101 to 150 Mbps) o Committed Bandwidth (151 to 200 Mbps) o Committed Bandwidth ( 201+ Mbps) Software Licenses o Windows 2008 Web Edition, 32‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2008 Web Edition, 64‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2008 Std. 32‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2008 Std. 64‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2008 Ent. 32‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2008 Ent. 64‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2003 Std. 32‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2003 Std. 64‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2003 Ent. 32‐bit (Per VM) o Windows 2003 Ent. 64‐bit (Per VM) o Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (64‐bit) w/ SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (Per VM) o Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (64‐bit) w/ SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (Per VM) o Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition (64‐bit) w/ SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (Per VM) o Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition (64‐bit) w/ SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (Per VM) Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
5
o
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Web Edition (64‐bit) w/ SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (Per VM) Pricing Example Public Cloud ‐ 5GHz, 10GB, 500GB Committed Resources Public Cloud Computing Resources: 5GHz/10GB RAM Quantity CPU Resources Memory Resources 1 5 GHz 10 GB 1 500 GB 1 Public Cloud HA Utility Firewall 2 x Public Cloud Software Client‐LAN VPN 1 Public Cloud HA Utility Load Balancer 5 x Public IP(s) Private IP's (DMZ/27) Private IP's (INT/28) 1 1 Mbps Public Cloud Storage Resources: 500GB Quantity Fiber Storage Resources Network and Security Public Cloud Security Resources Quantity Security Resources Security Resources Public Cloud Network Resources Quantity Network Resources Public IP Resources Private IP Resources Private IP Resources Bandwidth Connectivity ‐ Committed Bandwidth Quantity Bandwidth Total Non‐Recurring Charges $0 Total Monthly‐Recurring Charges $2,949.50 Monthly Services ‐ Hosting $2,232.00 Monthly Services ‐ Network $62.50 Monthly Services ‐ Security $0.00 Monthly Services ‐ Storage $625.00 Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
6
Virtual Server
IBM SmartCloud Enterprise Issue: How can I reduce the costs required to set up and maintain environments for development, testing and other dynamic workloads while accelerating my time to market and improving the quality of results? Solution: Leverage a more flexible cloud computing environment, designed with enterprise‐class security, reliability and control, to help reduce capital expense and operational costs, shorten development cycle times, improve quality and enable collaboration. We partner with IBM to give you access to the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise cloud computing environment. Today’s dynamic business environment is challenging. To support it, you need a cost‐effective, agile IT infrastructure to drive new services and applications to market more quickly. But setting up and maintaining your own IT infrastructure to meet these needs can mean high up‐front capital expenses and operational costs as well as poorly utilized infrastructures that are difficult to reallocate in response to unpredictable or intermittent workloads. Application development and test activities often suffer from insufficient test environments, resulting in prolonged development cycles and quality issues. Cloud computing can help you cope with these challenges, but you need a cloud infrastructure that offers enterprise‐class flexibility, security, reliability and control. With IBM SmartCloud™ Enterprise, you gain access to an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud that enables you to deploy new servers and storage environments across the globe in minutes (as opposed to weeks or months) and pay for them only for as long as you need them. You have virtually no up‐front capital expenses, and, with almost no infrastructure to maintain, you may also reduce your labor costs. In addition, IBM SmartCloud Enterprise provides you with highly standardized and automated processes, which can help you improve the quality of your projects by reducing development and deployment errors. Built to support the security, reliability and control needs of large and midsized enterprises and their partners, this flexible cloud infrastructure provides a platform that can help you rethink your IT solutions and reinvent your business. Reinventing business with reduced up‐front investments and lead times Without the need to invest in IT capacity up front and by only paying for the capacity actually needed when it is needed, you can gain the flexibility to explore a broader set of business opportunities. This flexibility has propelled many of our customers to new levels of business innovation and agility. Although media companies and electronic game developers were some of the first to leverage cloud economics, companies from many other industries, including financial services, life sciences, manufacturing, distribution and retail, have since joined them. Examples range from global Internet collaboration and media sharing to focusing massive cloud compute power on performing genome mapping, financial analysis, stress testing and distribution optimization. The automation and capacity in IBM SmartCloud Enterprise can also help you achieve greater business agility by shortening application development and deployment lead times. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise can provide you with nearly instant Internet access to virtual servers and storage that is exclusively yours to use and customize as you like. You or your partners can install applications and tools on top of Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
7
the standard images and operating systems, configure storage and adjust security settings, just as you would in your own data center. Once your configuration meets your requirements, you can automatically deploy identical copies of it to developers and production environments around the globe in minutes. IT infrastructure can be taken out of the critical path on your projects. Helping you reduce costs with automation and pay‐as‐you‐go pricing You can generate considerable savings in capital expenditures for servers, storage and software and in their associated operational costs by using the cloud to more closely match server capacity to your immediate needs. In addition, the highly automated IBM SmartCloud Enterprise provisioning process also reduces the need for many traditional IT tasks, helping you avoid the labor costs associated with the time‐consuming procurement of servers, storage and operating system software and with installing, configuring and maintaining them. The IBM SmartCloud Enterprise cost estimator can help you compare cloud costs to the cost of a traditional implementation. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise provides a number of software licensing options designed to help you reduce your overall software costs. The cloud asset catalogs contain a selection of ready‐to‐deploy software that you can use on a bring‐your‐own‐license or pay‐as‐you‐go basis. Pay‐as‐you‐go software with hourly rates can drive significant cost reductions if you have short‐term workloads or workloads with variable capacity requirements. In addition, you can bring open source software and software that you own or already have a license for to the cloud by importing an image or installing it directly on cloud virtual machines. To realize these cost reductions, you need to select and redeploy appropriate workloads to the cloud. Intermittent or short‐term workloads and workloads with very dynamic capacity requirements, such as product launch workloads, are good initial candidates because they can provide immediate benefits and are difficult to handle without a cloud. Next, you should identify workloads with moderate availability and security requirements that fit well into a cloud context (for example, the majority of development and test activities and many production workloads with less sensitive data such as static website applications). Studies show that over half of all enterprise workloads fall into this category. Enabling enterprises and their partners to rethink IT solutions IBM SmartCloud Enterprise has been designed to be open and flexible to help enterprises extend their data centers into the cloud as well as to allow their partners to leverage the cloud in delivering their services. The following are a few examples of the features that accomplish this:  Users have full (root) unique secured access to configure their x86 servers and storage in the cloud.  Software bundles and images can be imported or created and managed using tools and image catalogs.  The object storage Internet file system service can be set up to create a global, private or public, enterprise web file sharing system.  Virtual private networks, firewalls and filtering of network traffic can be set up to match enterprise requirements.  The entire provisioning process can be customized using an extensive set of application programming interfaces. Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
8

A cloud service framework within the cloud portal allows users to define and manage their own platform‐as‐a‐service and software‐as‐a‐service offerings. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise does not include or mandate IBM managed services that interact directly with a running server instance. Enterprises can choose the IT management processes and providers they prefer to satisfy requirements for such things as application and image management, system monitoring, backup and recovery, and security management. They may choose to provide these services themselves or to purchase them separately from their partners or from IBM. Offering enterprise‐class cloud security, reliability and control When you are considering a new technology such as cloud, there are always challenges and dependencies that need to be addressed. Numerous studies have documented that enterprises considering cloud computing are most concerned about security, reliability and control. IBM has carefully considered each of these themes when building the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise offering. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise is designed to be a security‐rich infrastructure. The design considerations have been guided by the IBM Security Framework and IBM internal best practices. They range from tight physical security of the cloud data centers to intrusion protection systems, access controls and constant vulnerability scanning of the infrastructure. In addition, optional security features such as virtual private networking can help you extend your existing security disciplines to the cloud. Around‐the‐clock monitoring and management of the global IBM SmartCloud infrastructure is focused on delivering at least 99.5 percent availability, as specified in the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise service‐
level agreement. In addition, the cloud environment provides a number of features that allow you to deploy highly resilient configurations. These features include ‘anti‐collocation,’ ‘virtual IP addressing,’ and image and storage cloning for implementing failover strategies. These and other features have motivated a number of enterprises to rethink their disaster recovery strategies to now rely on the cloud. Enterprise‐class control of cloud users, processes and assets is a differentiating feature of IBM SmartCloud Enterprise. This control starts at cloud account creation time when an enterprise account administrator is given sole access to the cloud portal and the means to authorize other users to order cloud services within defined limits. The built‐in control panel continuously provides a view of cloud assets and spending on servers, storage, images and preconfigured service instances. Software asset libraries, private and shared across the account, with tools provide a way to encourage and control reuse, standardization and proper entitlement. Usage charge detail reports enable you to allocate cloud costs to individual users and service instances. You can manually control the automated cloud provisioning engine or customize it to add or delete servers and storage on a fixed schedule or in response to unpredictable or intermittent loads, helping you to maintain service levels and control costs. Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
9
Pricing Structure
Packages are defined as follows: Virtual Machine Component ‐ 32 bit configuration Virtual CPUs @ 1.25GHz Virtual Memory (GB) Virtual Local Storage (GB) Virtual Machine Component ‐ 64 bit configuration Virtual CPUs @ 1.25GHz Virtual Memory (GB) Virtual Local Storage (GB) Copper Bronze Silver Gold 1 2 60 Copper 1 2 235 Bronze 2 4 410 Silver 4 4 410 Gold Platinum 2 4 60 2 4 910 4 8 1084 8 16 1084 16 16 2108 Pricing is pay per use per hour and based on the following variables: 





Reserved or unreserved capacity Operating System (Linux or Windows) Persistent Storage (per GB per hour) Internet Data Transfer (per GB per month) Reserved IP Address Pay‐as‐you‐go Software Images
Pricing Grid – Unreserved Capacity Per Hour Usage Charges – Unreserved Capacity
SC Operating System 32‐bit Configuration
Red Hat Enterprise Linux SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 Windows Server (2003 and 2006 Versions) CP Operating System 32‐bit Configuration
SC Operating System 64‐bit Configuration
Red Hat Enterprise Linux SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 Windows Server (2003 and 2006 Versions) CP Operating System 64‐bit Configuration
Copper
$.1875
$.1425
$.150
Bronze $.2175 $.1725 $.180 Silver
$.345
$.300
$.360
Gold
$.540
$.495
$.555
$.1125
$.1425 $.270
$.465
Copper
$.450
$.405
$.510
Bronze
$.600
$.555
$.600
Silver $.720 $.675 $.750 Gold $1.11 $1.065 $1.44 Platinum
$2.190
$2.085
$2.985
$.375
$.525
$.645 $1.035 $2.055
January 31, 2012
10
Persistent Storage Charge per GA per hour .000225 Storage Input and Output Access Requests
Requests per million pr portion thereof $.165
Internet Data Transfer Rate Tier for Monthly Terabyte (TB) Usage
For transfer amounts up to and including the 10th TB
For transfer amounts from the 10th TB up to and including the 50th TB For transfer amount from the 50th TB up to and including the 150th TB For transfer amounts above the 150th TB Reserved IP Address Each Reserved IP Address For each reserved IP address Per GB Charge
$.225
$.165
$.135
$.120
Charge per hour
$.015
January 31, 2012
11
Virtual Desktop
IBM SmartCloud Desktop As your traditional desktop environment becomes more complex, you may be looking at virtualization to help reduce the substantial effort required for deployments or upgrades and labor‐intensive end‐user support, not to mention the amount of lost productivity your end users can experience in a traditional PC environment. And the lack of in‐house skills or sufficient capital could hamper your transition. IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud offers a fully managed, pay‐as‐you‐go subscription service that helps transform your desktop environment with virtualization. By extending the refresh cycle of your PCs, you can use existing equipment to deliver the most up‐to‐date applications to your end users, with fewer costly hardware upgrades or additional support costs. Or you can migrate to the latest thin clients. And as more of your workers bring in their own devices, such as iPad or Android tablets, you can benefit from the expertise of IBM’s virtualization and cloud computing professionals, who can help you find the most effective way to address your client computing issues. Addressing unpredictable desktop virtualization costs Using the IBM Cloud, we can help provide cost efficiencies, reduce infrastructure and staffing costs and improve end‐user support. Desktops that might have been refreshed every two or three years can become thin clients, enabled to receive virtualized applications and operating systems regardless of their legacy status. And because the virtualization services are delivered on a convenient, pay‐as‐you‐go, monthly subscription basis, we can help you establish a more predictable desktop budget that allows you to scale to meet changing business requirements. Helping deliver security‐rich data access to end users Having critical business information on demand is essential to your responsiveness, and virtualization provides near anytime, anywhere access to users. By moving data away from the physical desktop where it can be compromised, you can create a fundamentally more security‐rich environment. For instance, users can access their desktops from home without the inherent security risk to a highly distributed desktop environment. In addition, IBM separates controls for end‐user access, so you can continue to use your enterprise’s security framework to control access to your sensitive data and applications. Using virtualization specialists to help simplify your desktop infrastructure IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud offers the services of experienced virtualization professionals to manage the hardware, software and support within a hosted environment. From assessment and planning to migration services, our extensive experience in end‐user services helps you identify the right approach for your organization – whether you are integrating employee‐owned devices like iPad or Android tablets, new thin clients or just repurposing existing desktops. With the IBM Cloud, your desktops can be provisioned in hours instead of weeks, enhancing productivity for both end users and your IT staff. Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
12
Issue: Traditional desktop environments require substantial effort for deployments, upgrades and end‐user support, but many companies lack in‐house resources to move to virtualization. And as employees bring in their own devices, integrating iPad or Android tablets can add to the complexity. Solution: Transform your client environment to a virtual cloud for more security‐rich access and higher productivity. We partner with IBM to give you access to IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud. PricingStructure Feature Contract Term vCPU RAM Disk Space VM Type HDX Billing SLA Sold in blocks of: Pricing Bronze Silver Gold Trial = 3 mos (with 3 mo renewal option) Production IBM Cloud = 36.60 months 1 1 1 1GB 1GB 2GB 7.5GB 10GB 15GB Non‐Persistent Persistent or Persistent or Non‐Persistent Non‐Persistent Option Included Included No one‐time charge: pr VM per month. Billing starts after on‐
boarding 99.5% Availability 50 VMs 50 VMs 30 VMs $54/month per VM $72/month per VM $100.50/month per VM Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
13
Charlotte – Charllotte Cooperativee Purchasing Allliance
T
Prod
– Infrastructure Capabilities
C
rm Mana
agementt
ation
k's Colocation
n services offfer a highly se
ecure and relliable carrier‐‐neutral envirronment to d
deploy mputing, tele
ecom, storagge and IT eq
quipment. O
Our fortress‐sstyle facilitiees, complete with nt infrastructu
ure and syste
ems, help you
u eliminate thhe capital and
d operationall expense req
quired and protectt your missio
on‐critical harrdware, softw
ware and systems. Terreemark's Coloccation offer a conttrolled and managed m
spaace with muultiple conneectivity optio
ons for your data nt in a secure
e and reliable
e facility. Cusstom designeed to exceed industry stan
ndards, Terreemark 100% Servicce Level Agre
eements (SLA
As) for pow er and envirronmental syystems throu
ugh a of redundant subsystems, including pow
wer and fiberr trunks from
m multiple sou
urces. This scaalable allows you to upgrade spacce, connectivity and servicces as your reequirements ggrow. tions include: Open Racks aged Space ocked caged aareas startingg at ustomized, lo
100 square
e feet irtually any co
onfiguration of equipmentt mounting up to 10' 10''' in height C and DC pow
wer nalog, ISDN, DS0 telephon
ne lines availaable osed Cabinet Options inclu
ude: ’ H x 23” W x 27.5” or 36” D (mounting depth) wer C and DC pow
nection & Cro
oss‐Connects connection aand Cross‐con
nnect servicess enable you to convenieently share daata with any other connected to Terremark''s sophisticated network. This "zero‐m
mile" distance between you and ners you connect with he
elps you to avoid a
many oof the costs and perform
mance issues often d with a com
mplex patchwo
ork of local‐lo
oops and longg‐haul circuitts. Whether yyou are purch
hasing om any of the
e leading glob
bal carriers lo
ocated at our facility, or prroviding an in
nnovative IP‐b
based o the marketp
place, Terrem
mark's Cross‐cconnect servvice can help meet your n
needs. Terrem
mark's for this flexxible connecttivity option. With eutral facilitie
es provide th
he optimal environment e
nnections to
o some of the t
largest backbone b
prroviders in tthe world, tthis service offers tely recognizaable cost and performance
e benefits. work has bee
en designed to meet demanding cosst and performance requ
uirements in both itan as well aas transocean
nic applicatio
ons. We recoggnize that so
ome customers may conneect to ork via intern
national SDH standards, w
while domestiic customers may choose SONET stand
dards. ork performss the necessary conversion
ns and gatew
way functionallity to converrt SONET sign
nals to als and vice‐vversa. This capability eliminates the ne ed for custom
mers to purchase and maintain n expensive op
ptical switche
es, while provviding immennse flexibility ffor customerrs to terminatte and Proposal (RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
14
T
Prod
C
with each oth
her. Terremarrk's Interconn
nection servicce extends to
o the VF level to perform u‐law conversion for T‐1 to E1 circuits, thus eliminatingg your need tto purchase advanced ch
hannel ipment. ed Router Service k Managed Router R
Servicce (MRS) the leverages thhe extensive amount of connectivity tthat is t the NAP of the Americas today to prrovide the cu stomer with choice, perfo
ormance and rapid market for their Internet access needss. This level of connectivvity is a direcct result of h
having the largest multinational carriers and
d ISPs as cusstomers of th
he NAP of th
he Americas. MRS vantage of this “marketplaace” of carrie
ers and providdes value as a turnkey so
olution for Intternet ndwidth thatt is highly reliable, has very low latenccy, improved performancee and is extreemely provision. been implemented at the NAP of the t Americass via the insstallation of a state‐of‐th
he art designed and
m is a d implemente
ed by the Terrremark tech nical team. A
At the core o
of this platform
ate‐of‐the‐artt Cisco routerrs capable of transferring up to 40 million packets p
per second, att core speeds rangging from 5 Gbps up to 160 Gbps. The core rou
uters are connected in aa fully nt mesh configguration to th
he NAP of the
e Americas Peeering Netwo
ork where acccess to the caarriers dwide conne
ectivity is prrovided via multiple m
Gig‐‐E connection
ns run over multimode fiber. y is further enhanced e
via interconnecctions betweeen the two C
Cisco routerss via Gig‐E trrunks. r connectionss to the platfo
orm are supported via pattch panels loccated in eitheer the East or West nt Rooms. d provides exceptional nettwork perform
mance for ou
ur customers by condensin
ng the tes value and
e reach of se
everal network providers into one sin gle connectio
on. By conneecting to MRSS, the immediatelyy receives a complete paackage ts, including: Multiple Tier O
One Providerrs Continuous M
Monitoring and
d Reporting
BGP Configuraation Recomm
mendations Traffic and Ro
oute Reporting Performance A
Analysis Low Latency Optimized Routing Excellent Netw
work Perform
mance DDOS Reporting and Protection also be provided in a redundant confiiguration, prooviding even greater overrall Internet aaccess . emark MRS provides p
custo
omers with access a
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er of days, faar quicker and
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obtain a costly and suming local lloop from traditional soluttions. Proposal (RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
15
Connections to the MRS platform are offered from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps bandwidth connections providing the opportunity for an entry‐level connection that can be upgraded as traffic demands warrant. For larger traffic loads, multiple 10‐Gbps connections can be implemented to form a “super trunk”, offering superior network performance and reliability. Smart Hands & Remote Hands Services Terremark’s SmartHands and RemoteHands services assist customers that need remote access to their equipment for performing simple trouble‐shooting or maintenance tasks. Our 24x7 on‐duty staff can perform basic tasks that do not require the use of tools or equipment. Terremark’s SmartHands and RemoteHands services are available on demand or by subscription in 8‐hour blocks per month. On demand customers can expect best effort response times with an average response time of @ 1‐hour. On‐Demand requests are billed in one‐hour increments. Subscription customers can expect a 15‐minute response time Service Level Agreement (SLA) providing them with a dependable resource for maintaining maximum uptime. Subscription services are billed in 30‐minute increments at a significant savings over on demand hourly rates. Customers can remotely manage their operations at our locations from anywhere in the world and maximize operational uptime by utilizing the SmartHands and RemoteHands services. This remote service, performed by our skilled staff, reduces costs by eliminating the need for the customer to dispatch technical personnel to our facilities to perform simple tasks. Leveraging the round‐the‐clock availability of the SmartHands and RemoteHands services helps customers increase the uptime of their mission‐critical systems. Terremark’s RemoteHands Services include: 24x7 coverage Power Cycling (turning equipment on and off) Toggling a switch or pushing buttons Securing cabling to connections Observing, describing or reporting on indicators or display information on equipment or consoles; and basic observation and reporting on the environment in the data center. Terremark’s RemoteHands service does not include any service requiring a tool or diagnostic equipment, opening equipment or movement of connected equipment. Those are services provided by our Engineering Team on a case‐by‐case basis. Terremark’s SmartHands Service includes: 24x7 coverage Management of Equipment Components (e.g. cards, drives, memory) Installing, replacing or removing Troubleshooting Media Management Supply management Inventory and archiving Complex cable configurations Loop‐back and signal testing Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
16
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69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
17
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69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
18
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on’s design, including maaximum systeem threshold
ds and planning issue
es. Proposal (RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
19
January 31, 2012
20
SECTION 1
TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING
SERVICES
SECTION 1
1
TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING SERVICES
1.1
TSS/INVPOWER PROVIDED CONSULTING SERVICES




New Data Center design: TSS and Innovative Power Systems have provided significant
consulting and project execution services for new Data Centers throughout the US and in
Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. We have provided technology consulting, design and
engineering, program and project management, construction management, installation
management, long lead equipment procurement, budgeting and financial management,
critical path scheduling, system commissioning, and facilities management services.
Upgrade of existing Data Center facilities: TSS has performed the same services for
existing Data Centers as listed under New Design above. Approximately 75% of our work
is associated with upgrades, improvements, and expansions to existing Data Centers. Often
we are engaged to upgrade critical infrastructure systems while a Data Center is operating.
Design and construction of LEED (Green Data Center) facilities: TSS has conducted
several LEED evaluations for Data Center clients and provided detailed analysis and
recommendations for energy conservation initiatives and Green improvements. TSS is a
member of the Green Grid and regularly participates in educational seminars and industry
discussions on this subject. Please see our white paper, “"Implementing Green Initiatives in
the Data Center Environment."
Utility industry: TSS engineers and construction managers work closely with utility
companies on a regular basis to secure and deliver reliable utility services to our clients.
Regarding Data Center work we have performed for utility firms as our clients, we have
worked in the past for several utility companies. Most recently, performing energy analysis
and major infrastructure engineering services (for energy improvements) for Potomac
Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and their clients at Salisbury State University and the
Washington Metro Area Transit Authority; and for PGE, performing electrical power
system upgrades.
We are currently working on Facility Assessment Project for Arizona Public Service (APS).
This effort includes the facility evaluation of APS’ existing Phoenix, Arizona Data Center
and includes the activities that will enable APS to evaluate its options for improving
reliability, as well as develop a planed methodology for supporting future IT requirements.
Among some of the more significant services included for this specific project are:


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

Detailed IT growth modeling requirements
Single point-of-failure assessments for both IT infrastructure and cable plant
Detailed mechanical, electrical, and fire protection assessments
Detailed phasing plan for the implementation of recommendations, and
An a Cost/Benefit ROI Analysis
In the past, under our previous company name, Com-Site, we performed in a design/build
capacity for a significant Data Center expansion for Florida Power and Light in Miami. This
engagement included design and construction management for a new power plant building
with UPS, batteries, generators, and switchgear. We also performed a Data Center upgrade
for Atlantic Electric in New Jersey.
SECTION 2
EVALUATION PHASE
2
EVALUATION PHASE
2.1
ASSESSMENT APPROACH
TSS completes Facility Assessment Services for many clients. As part of this effort we typically
follow the process as outlined below which includes a for a four step assessment approach:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Assessment of IT requirements
Assessment of the existing facility
Establishment of the Design Criteria Benchmark
Facility Evaluation & Recommendations for Modification/Upgrade
Step 4 of the process essentially provides a “gap analysis” for the following elements:
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Current IT requirements versus projected future requirements
Existing facility infrastructure versus projected future requirements
Existing facility infrastructure versus required reliability requirements
Existing facility infrastructure versus energy efficiency requirements
TSS’ Facility Assessment Service is the programmatic definition of requirements, facility
evaluation, and estimating activities that are required for client to evaluate its options for improving
the reliability and efficiency of its existing Data Center. As part of its report, TSS will provide
recommendations for the best practices to apply to Data Center operations, use of high density
servers and monitoring power consumption and energy efficiency in the Data Center.
2.1.1
Technology Growth Programming
TSS will coordinate with representatives of client to obtain background information on the current
Data Center equipment counts and preliminary projections for future equipment increases. TSS will
evaluate the information obtained and provide an advisory analysis of growth using Best Practices
for IT systems growth trending. TSS will then develop and document the projections and future
requirements of the technology infrastructure that Siemens will need to support with any proposed
Data Center modifications.
The projections will take the form of a Growth Model matrix, spanning multiple tables to reflect the
sophisticated trends that may influence the project over a prolonged period of time. This
programming effort will ensure that the Data Center facility will properly support business goals.
2.1.2
IT-Based Design Parameters
TSS will also develop and document the basic performance expectations, reliability requirements,
and facility infrastructure requirements concerning the technology that supports the critical business
operations of client, in order to establish the general design parameters of the technology
infrastructure. These Data Center requirement projections will also be rooted in TSS’ design
experience and Best Practices in the implementation of a Data Center. TSS will establish the
Program and Design Criteria necessary to support the facility’s mid- and long-term technology
infrastructure based upon these documented expectations and requirements.
TSS will work with appropriate client personnel to identify current and future IT system
requirements. Business growth, Uptime Institute requirements, functional requirements, and
application requirements will have direct influence on decisions relative to the level of redundancy
and reliability of any new proposed Data Center. TSS will identify the basic design parameters in
relation to the facility’s infrastructure which are necessary for supporting technology systems.
Evaluation parameters concerning the infrastructure will include: performance, availability,
reliability, and maintainability of the Electrical, Mechanical, Fire Protection/Detection, and Security
Systems. The Program and the Design Criteria for the facility’s technology infrastructure will be
established based upon TSS’ findings.
The results of the Preliminary IT Assessment Report will include the following outputs:

Technology Equipment Assumptions – TSS will document the current assumptions
surrounding client technology equipment and will review any pre-existing inventory
documentation which client may already possess.

Computer Hardware Growth Modeling – TSS will work with appropriate Siemens personnel to identify current and future (3 and 5 year) system requirements and address any
issues of consideration that may influence decisions relative to the level of redundancy and
reliability such as growth, functional requirements, and application support requirements.

Space Projections – TSS will develop proposed space requirements for each business and
functional area within the technology areas based upon preliminary Siemens space
allocations.

Load Projections – TSS will establish projections for mechanical cooling, electrical power
based upon the loads that result from the technology equipment analysis.

Equipment Plans – Utilizing an existing plan provided by client as a basis, TSS will
develop a recommended plan for supporting future requirements. TSS will identify the
optimal location and configuration of IT, cooling and power distribution equipment within
the Data Center.
2.2
FACILITY ASSESSMENT
2.2.1
Site Survey/Document Review
TSS will conduct a site survey of the facility to document and evaluate the existing Electrical
Mechanical, and Fire Protection/Detection infrastructure. An assessment of the existing Mechanical
and Electrical Systems will be conducted to confirm the type of equipment, age, condition, capacity,
and operation and maintenance records. The capability of the existing systems to support the
current and planned IT systems will be reviewed and basic recommendations provided for upgrades
or enhancements.
The site survey is expected to be a one day event and will include interviews with Data Center
management staff and Building Systems Engineers. The site visit would also incorporate a turnover
of documentation from the Owner’s representatives including power utility invoices, Data Center
and central plant design drawings along with IT equipment inventories on a rack by rack basis (if
permitted for release and if available).
TSS efforts during this initial visit will include the following evaluations:
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Document Review. TSS will perform a review of existing drawings, Operations &
Maintenance records and other related documentation for the Data Center and support
infrastructure.
Field Survey Assessment. TSS will conduct a field survey to assess the existing Data
Center equipment layout, cooling systems, power distribution and power generation
systems.
Interviews. TSS will interview facility engineering staff and determine existing system
operating characteristics.
Power Utilization Data. TSS will collect utilization data from UPS and PDU equipment to
determine the Data Center’s Power Utilization Effectiveness (PUE).
Environmental Readings. TSS will spot check floor space temperature and humidity
readings to map a preliminary temperature profile.



Cabinet Locations. TSS will document the cabinet layout and compare with available asbuilt plans.
Floor Tile Locations. TSS will document the floor tile layout and compare with available
as-built plans.
Air Flow Obstructions and Conditions. TSS will document below floor and above ceiling
(plenum spaces) obstructions and existing conditions.
This survey will require complete access to Mechanical/Electrical rooms, UPS/Battery rooms,
emergency generator locations and roof top heat rejection equipment. This survey will require
between 4 and 8 hours for completion.
2.2.2
Design Criteria Benchmark
The outcome of a Facility Assessment will highlight cooling, power and energy efficiency issues
that require resolution to meet client goals for the facility. TSS will develop a Design Criteria
Benchmark that will describe the Architectural and Engineering design guidelines that Siemens and
TSS identify as achievable goals for the facility.
The Design Criteria Benchmark will be based upon the IT growth, load, and timeframe information
developed from the IT Assessment, Section (2.1), of this proposal, ensuring that the project
approach will incorporate a modular and flexible implementation process. The Design Criteria
Benchmark will provide a documented source of design information including system capacity,
reliability, redundancy, and the basis of any design assumptions. Each area is represented
independently and through a summary perspective that integrates each discipline into a holistic
design approach.
TSS will develop energy assessment criteria that will include modeling the existing environment
(the “base model”) and then generating an energy usage simulation. The resulting document will
summarize the findings from the field assessment and provide a “snap-shot” of the Data Center
energy use compared with other, similar facilities and current design benchmarks. TSS will
complete a heat load calculation and compare it to available cooling capacities in order to provide
an indication of the current Data Center’s overall efficiency.
2.2.3
Facility Evaluation & Recommendations for Modification/Upgrade
TSS will produce a report which will consist of survey results and recommendations for each
subsystem outlined below. TSS staff will identify and document their recommendations for the
modifications/upgrades which are necessary for bringing the facility into compliance with the
Design Criteria outlined in this proposal.
The Architectural, Mechanical, Electrical, Fire Detection/Protection, and Security design teams will
outline their recommendations within the following general parameters:
Architectural Recommendations
TSS will make recommendations concerning Architectural standards for the design and construction
of the facility.
Architectural recommendations will address the following:
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Clear heights
Structural floor loading
Partition construction and glazing
Fire-resistive construction
Access floor system as applicable
Audio Visual system
Ceiling system
Fire-suppression containment measures


Insulation and vapor barriers
Interior finishes, furnishings and material selections to be coordinated with tenant architect
Electrical System Recommendations
Innovative Power Systems will provide Electrical Systems selection, sizing, location, and operation
recommendations based on the calculated loads and operational requirements.
The following Electrical Systems supporting the technology areas will be evaluated:
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
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


Data Center Power Distribution System
UPS and Battery or Power Conditioning Systems
Emergency or Standby Power Generator Systems
Automatic Power Transfer Switching and Paralleling Systems
Safety and Signal Reference Grounding Systems
Lighting Systems
Lightning Protection System where applicable
Monitoring, Recording, and Control systems
Emergency Power Off (EPO) Systems
Grounding Systems
Mechanical System Recommendations
Innovative Power Systems will provide Mechanical System selection, sizing, location, and
operation recommendations based upon the equipment loads and operational requirements.
The following Mechanical Systems serving the technology areas within the facility will be
evaluated:
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

Cooling systems, including heat rejection equipment
Area air-distribution systems
Ventilation and exhaust systems
Water detection alarm systems
Humidification
HVAC redundancy
Fire Detection/Protection Systems Recommendations
TSS will provide recommendations with respect to the following Fire Detection/Protection Systems:

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



Fire Detection/Protection System (including aspirated smoke detector system options)
Fire Alarm System
Wet Pipe Sprinkler Fire Suppression System in the office areas
Pre-action Sprinkler Fire Suppression System in the Data Center
Clean Agent Fire Suppression System (e.g. FM200 or alternative)
Hand Held Extinguishing Systems
Security Systems Recommendations
TSS will develop the functional security requirements for the security system based on the data
collected, including the following:


Access control requirements and levels
Access monitoring and control
Energy Systems Recommendations
The final Energy Assessment section will highlight Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs). This
section of the audit will also include a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis with simple payback
calculations for each ECM. The LCC analysis will include construction budgets, energy costs and
maintenance costs over the anticipated life of the measure, with savings expressed in 2008 Dollars,
and will include current energy escalation rates from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Energy Audit’s foundation will rely heavily upon the information that was gathered during the
site assessment and quality of documents received. TSS assumes that the following information
will be available for our review and use during the project duration:


2.2.4
Up to date as-built drawings of the existing Data Center layout including Architectural,
Mechanical and Electrical, Fire Protection and Security design documents
Up to date as-built drawings of cabinet layout and equipment densities – An exact inventory
of all Data Center equipment is not necessary but will provide a much more precise level of
detail resulting in the most effective recommendations (The minimum IT information level
required to develop good ECM recommendations is rack-by-rack power consumption) TSS
requires this information will be furnished by Siemens through existing documentation. If
not, TSS is capable of collecting this data for an additional fee (depending on level of detail
needed).
Facility Assessment Deliverables
TSS anticipates that the Facility Assessment study will be completed within approximately 4 to 6
weeks from receiving the notification to proceed. The exact schedule will be dependent upon the
time requirements for the provision of Siemens information, reviews and approvals, as well as
scheduled site visits.
The deliverables will consist of a Facility Assessment Report, which will include documentation of
existing infrastructure and recommended modifications/upgrades for the Data Center.
The report will contain the following specific information:









Basic performance and reliability requirements for the Technology Infrastructure
Technology equipment assumptions and projections
Technology equipment electrical and mechanical load profiles
Recommendations for deployment of server technology
Recommended modifications and upgrades for the Facility Infrastructure, specific to the
Siemens environment as surveyed, including:
o Architectural Considerations
o Electrical Considerations
o Mechanical Considerations
o Fire Detection/Protection Considerations
o Security Considerations
Energy usage simulation results
Recommended Energy Conservation Measures and upgrades for the infrastructure systems,
specific to the Siemens environment as surveyed, including:
o Proposed Energy Conservation Measures (ECM)
o Electrical considerations
o Mechanical considerations
o Facility Envelope & Raised Floor considerations
Budget for recommended modifications and upgrades
Drawings and Diagrams As Required
o Computer hardware layout
o Mechanical single-line drawing
o Electrical single-line drawing
SECTION 3
TURN KEY
INSTALLATION SERVICES
3
DCIM TURN KEY INSTALLATION SERVICES
Successful Data Center Infrastructure installations often rely on close coordination between many
organizations and vendors. Innovative Power Systems (IPSI) has built a reputation with APC by
providing close coordination and project management between all the parties involved in very
complex installations.
Beginning with a pre-delivery assessment to ensure that the equipment that was ordered can be
delivered to the site without special rigging or changes to the facility. Often times building owners
require special coverings on wall and floors before large equipment can be off loaded and delivered
within a facility. These requirements are documented and passed on the freight carrier so that
valuable time is not missed by refused deliveries. During the Pre-Delivery visit, the project
manager will also verify distances to electrical feeds, cooling pipes, raised floor height, and any
other critical elements that could impact installation of the equipment and is documented in the
Project Plan document and becomes a living document that is updated throughout the life of the
project. The Project Plan document is outlined below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
PROJECT MANAGER
PROJECT SUMMARY
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
CONTACT INFORMATION
COMMUNICATION PLAN
RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN
PROJECT MILESTONES
PROJECT ISSUES LOG
PROJECT CHANGE LOG
PROJECT PUNCH LIST
PROJECT ACCEPTANCE SIGN-OFF
SECTION 4
REPRESENTATIVE
PROJECTS
SECTION 4
4
REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS
4.1
PROJECT REFERENCES
These project references discuss client’s business case, clients need for our consulting services and
our effort regarding the scope of work. Below, we are submitting the names and descriptions of
client contacts for this purpose.
4.1.1
Consulting Project Experience
Contract Customer:
End Client Name:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Bearing Point
British Petroleum
London, Singapore; Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois, and Tulsa,
Oklahoma; Watford England
TSS, as a subcontractor for Bearing Point, initially provided
complete Site Assessment services with written recommendations
for four British Petroleum (BP) locations around the globe,
including: London, Singapore; Houston, and Chicago. Following
that initial effort, TSS also conducted expanded Site Evaluations for
each location to provide more detail of the necessary improvements
that were required to ensure a fully-equipped environment for the
mission-critical activities at each location. In addition to the four
original sites, TSS also provided evaluations for two additional
locations in Tulsa, Oklahoma, providing extensive written
recommendations for those facilities as well.
Through a combination of site tours, comprehensive interviews, and
a review of relevant documentation, TSS worked to develop
accurate “as-is” pictures of each of BP’s Data Center Infrastructure
environments and identified both site-specific strengths and
weaknesses. TSS analyzed BP’s requirements and the hosting
facility’s infrastructure in both a general context and as they related
to the base building security, architectural, mechanical, and
electrical infrastructure.
TSS also reviewed documentation submitted by Bearing Point and
BP, pertaining to the firm’s Sentrum III facility located in Watford,
England, to determine if the Sentrum facility design met the criteria
of the functional specifications. The documentation included the
Sentrum III/EMDC2 functional specifications, plans, electrical
diagrams, and a narrative specific to the site. Ultimately, TSS
provided Bearing Point and BP with details, comments and
recommendations on all of the documentation, providing
explanation of the written comments via follow-up briefings.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Burgess Property and Company- Corporate
San Diego, CA
Burgess Property and Company plans to develop regional Data
Center Campus sites at several locations across the United States.
Each campus will support multiple Data Center buildings served by
a centralized mechanical and electrical plant. Tenants will be able
to select their desired Tier level 2 - 4 and electrical capacity from
SECTION 4
50 -200 watts per square foot.
TSS provided conceptual schematic design services for the site
Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure that will be
provided at each site. Telecommunications considerations included:
Campus Pathway Systems (Non-Secure & Secure), Schematic Site
Requirements, recommended routing options, requirements from
street to the site, duct bank requirements, manhole and vault
requirements, Point of Presence (POP) requirements, Meet Me
Rooms (MMRs) requirements, Premise Cable Distribution
requirements.
Security considerations included: Site and Building setbacks,
vehicle entrance design and location, campus vehicular traffic
pattern, force protection features, technical security systems,
building perimeter surveillance, intrusion detection, lighting,
interior space planning, security management and control.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Hunt Midwest, Inc.
Kansas City, MO
TSS conducted a series of marketing projects including a hosting
market analysis, a telecommunications evaluation and a facility
assessment for Hunt Midwest. TSS also developed mission-critical
site marketing materials for the firm’s underground facility located
in Kansas City, MO. These services were performed in support of
the anticipated development of a portion of the Sub Troplis as a
Data Center space.
TSS assessed the site to determine requirements for upgrading the
facility infrastructure of the Sub Tropolis in support of a potential
Tier 3 or 4 Data Center hosting environment. Telecommunications
capabilities and service provider capacities were reviewed and
documented for the areas that surround the facility.
Marketing support materials that can be incorporated into Hunt
Midwest’s overall marketing package and approach to the facility
were developed once the evaluative studies were complete.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
MGM Mirage (MGM)
Las Vegas, NV
TSS provided comprehensive services associated with the
development of a new Data Center for the MGM Mirage in Las
Vegas, Nevada.
TSS coordinated with the appropriate representatives of MGM to
develop and document the requirements for the new Data Center
and supporting infrastructure. The programming effort ensured that
MGM’s corporate business goals are properly supported in the
project.
TSS also identified site selection criteria with MGM, which will be
used to access potential new Data Center locations. As part of this
process, TSS developed a matrix and rating system to evaluate each
of the candidate sites for MGM’s approval. The matrix takes into
SECTION 4
account such factors as: physical characteristics of each site,
expansion potential, the site’s compatibility with the local master
plan, availability and reliability of utilities, telecommunications,
etc.
TSS also provided Advance Transition Planning (part of its
Technology Relocation Planning Services), which emphasized
broad issues such as scheduling and finalizing the strategic
approach to the movement of technology. TSS’ efforts were
targeted at establishing a strategic understanding of the tasks and
resources required for the effective transition of circuits, equipment,
and services, as well as outlining steps that must be taken leading
up to these events.
TSS performed a Data Center Analysis for MGM. TSS coordinated
with appropriate MGM representatives to develop and document
the requirements for the new Data Center. The programming effort
ensures that MGM’s corporate business goals are properly
supported.
TSS provided Conceptual Design and Engineering of the Data
Center, as well as all of the supporting Engineering efforts. Site
and building modifications were performed in accordance with all
applicable codes and standards.
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Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
4.1.2
Vanderbilt University and Medical Center
Nashville, TN
TSS developed a growth model for 2 existing Data Centers (one for
the University and one for the Medical Center) based on past growth
patterns, interviews with IT personnel, and current equipment. TSS
analyzed the potential useful life of the Data Centers based on the
growth model and made recommendations for improvements. TSS
also developed design criteria for a new facility that would replace
the 2 existing Data Centers and provide room for future growth.
Design & Engineering Project Experience
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Interactive Data Corporation (IDCO)
Boxborough, MA
TSS provided design and construction administration services for
IDCO’s 50,000 square foot Boxborough Data Center 3 location.
The design team is providing and delivering a complete package of
construction documents suitable for vendor bidding, with the focus
on both the Data Center as well as targeted offices that were
relocating as a result of the project.
The design team took a scalable/modular approach to the design,
enabling a controlled implementation process including cost for
expansion of the Data Center and providing overall design program
management services.
The design team also reviewed the commissioning services
(provided by others) for the facility’s HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing,
and Fire Protection Systems. The design team was engaged during
the construction and occupancy phases of this project for
construction administration services
TSS also managed the procurement of Long Lead Equipment. The
equipment was initially identified and designed as a part of the
preliminary expansion drawings and specification.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
DBT-Data Technology Center
Harrisonburg, VA
TSS is currently providing Construction Management Services for
DBT-Data Technology Center’s (DBT) new Data Center space
located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, thus providing DBT with a
complete turnkey package.
The building was most recently
utilized as a manufacturing/warehouse facility. The site is a high
bay industrial structure with a partial basement and multi-level
space totaling approximately 97,000 square feet and was
constructed in the early 1980’s. DBT is converting the building to a
data processing facility for use by one or more tenants. The
baseline requirement for the facility technologies is a power rating
of 125 watts per square foot.
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Throughout the Construction Management phase of this project, a
TSS Project Manager oversees the construction process, including
qualifying subcontractors and vendors, finalizing specifications,
securing bids, and negotiating contracts for project execution. TSS
is also providing the Center with 3 additional generators.
TSS’ Engineering services were completed for Mechanical,
Electrical, Fire Detection & Protection, and Security. The design
centered on the needs of DBT’s inaugural customers, satisfying
their growth and application needs. TSS provided Electrical Power
pricing for comparison and analysis services in conjunction with
these efforts. TSS applied progressive engineering techniques to
develop a comprehensive set of Construction Documents for the
base building and tenant infrastructure associated with the new Data
Center space.
The final design was based upon an initial set of Programming and
Schematic Design Services, which were provided by TSS to define
the programmatic requirements for the facility. TSS had conducted
a Requirements Assessment (RA) for the Center. The RA served as
the basis for the design effort. The study provided recommendations to improve the property to meet the facility’s functional
needs. DBT intended the site to be used as a Tier 3 Data
Center. Design criteria included available documentation, site
surveys,
requirement
projections,
and
engineering
recommendations.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
A Major Collocation Service Provider
Southern California
TSS is providing Design/Build and Commissioning Services for a
major collocation service provider’s new Data Center facility. The
TSS Construction Management Services will qualify subcontractors
and vendors; finalize specifications; and on behalf of the owner,
secure bids and negotiate contracts for the construction of their new
facility. Prior to the Construction Management phase, TSS will be
providing a set of Full Design Drawings and Engineering Services
to facilitate the construction of the new Data Center facility. The
construction documents are being provided at 30%, 70%, and 100%
design intervals.
TSS is also providing Commissioning Services, acting as
Commissioning Agent (CA), for the owner. The Commissioning
Services begin with the design development phase for the new Data
Center and will continue through the development of construction
documents and the actual construction process through the startup
and testing phase.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
A Major Collocation Service Provider
Northern Virginia
TSS is providing Design/Build and Commissioning Services for
major collocation service provider’s new Data Center facility. The
TSS Construction Management Services will qualify subcontractors
and vendors; finalize specifications; and on behalf of the owner,
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secure bids and negotiate contracts for the construction of their new
facility. Prior to the Construction Management phase, TSS will be
providing a set of Full Design Drawings and Engineering Services
to facilitate the construction of the new Data Center facility. The
construction documents are being provided at 30%, 70%, and 100%
design intervals.
TSS is also providing Commissioning Services, acting as
Commissioning Agent (CA), for the owner. The Commissioning
Services begin with the design development phase for the new Data
Center and will continue through the development of construction
documents and the actual construction process through the startup
and testing phase.
4.1.3
Design/Build Project Experience
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Interactive Data Corporation (IDCO)
Boxborough, MA
TSS provided Design/Build services for the construction of
approximately 25,000 square feet of Class A office space on the
second floor of the Boxborough facility for IDCO. TSS developed
a complete set of Design/Build Documents that satisfied the longterm construction requirements of IDCO. The documents were
approved and now TSS is moving to construct the office area in a
timely and effective manner; meeting the requirements specified for
occupancy.
TSS demolished the second floor of the Boxborough facility for
IDCO and is currently rebuilding 25,000 sq. ft. of second floor
office space per TSS’ drawings generated earlier.
Contract Customer:
End Client:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Amdex
U.S. Customs
Springfield, VA
TSS prepared construction documents for the US Customs and
Border Protection Service (US Customs) for two individual
projects: upgrade of existing transformer and conversion of 5,000
square feet of existing office space to a Data Center. This included
Architectural, Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing,
and Fire Protection design services, as well as construction
administration services. This ultimately led to the design of an
expansion for the US Customs’ Data Center at its current
Springfield location.
TSS has completed the design and is presently constructing the
NDC1 Phase 2 Data Center Upgrade for Amdex’s client, U.S.
Customs. Services provided by TSS, for this upgrade, include
Construction Management, Construction Administration, and longlead purchasing activities. TSS is furnishing Mechanical and
Electrical long-lead equipment in accordance with the NDC1 Phase
2 U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Data Center upgrade
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100% design documents.
TSS is responsible for biweekly updates of the project schedule and
the management and coordination of construction subcontractors to
facilitate a construction start date of September 16, 2007. TSS is
managing and coordinating the construction in an effort to expedite
the completion date to March 18, 2008. TSS is providing
Engineering and Construction Management Services to provide an
electrical power solution to include back-up generator power for
selective NDC1 administrative spaces per CBP needs. TSS is
managing and coordinating Engineering and construction including
Dominion Virginia Power to provide and install an additional
transformer for the increased capacity and associated utility work
made necessary for the upgrading of the NDC1.
Contract Customer:
Value:
Undisclosed Government Facility
$125M
Scope of Work:
TSS was the design-build project integrator for the development,
design, and construction/renovation of a multi-phased US
Government facility The facility–previously used as a large
manufacturing center—was converted to use for several Data
Centers, an operations command center, a processing facility, and a
new multi-unit generator and chiller building. All these areas are
fully integrated into common building automation, security/communications, and fire alarm systems. TSS encountered and
successfully managed multiple project challenges, included strict
site security controls, recurring client-driven design changes, and
construction rework caused by redesign and phasing.
Planning and Design Services
TSS considered the client’s stated needs and goals and then
successfully provided an efficient, workable series of design
documents; often well above the level of complexity typically
found in a technology facility. During design development, TSS
directed frequent meetings between designers, clients, and many
other project participants who provided valuable input. Evolving
changes in project scope were incorporated both during the design
period and throughout the construction cycle. Including these
changes represented a sophisticated challenge, requiring not only
close communications across design disciplines, but also between
multiple building occupants and phases of construction. TSS proved
itself up to the challenge, ensuring that the final design solutions
were implemented successfully.
Construction Services
Similar to the design efforts, the single-facility, multi-phased buildout (where the phases often overlapped) also proved to be a
challenge. Again, TSS met the challenge successfully.
Conversion of the existing facility required many exacting
construction activities: Removal of hazardous materials, significant
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modifications to the structural concrete and steel infrastructure,
upgrades to meet code requirements, extensive utilization of raised
access flooring systems, construction of a central plant housing
generators, UPSs and new mechanical systems, install of FM200
suppression pre-action sprinkler and sophisticated combustion
detection systems, and site security infrastructure.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
WellSpan Health
York, PA
TSS was contracted to provide a Design-Build solution for the new
Data Center for Well Span Health at the Indian Rock Office
Building in York, PA. Well Span Health required the Design-Build
effort in support of a new disaster recovery site in York, PA. The
work integrated an existing Data Center and expanded the live Data
Center.
As a part of the expansion TSS provided a standby generator, UPS,
ATS, PDU and RFPs as the electrical distribution. Also, a new
HVAC farm was created to serve the Data Center only.
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Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. (Stifel) - Baltimore
Baltimore, MD
TSS provided services associated with the development of a new
Stifel Baltimore location and the relocation of Stifel equipment and
staff to the new facility. Stifel now occupies floors 15, 16, and 17
of the office building located in Baltimore, MD. The Trading Floor
is located on the 15th Floor while the Data Center is on the 16th
Floor. The balance of the floors is office space.
TSS developed and documented the requirements for the new
Trading Floor, Data Center, and office areas. The project team
provided design and engineering of the Trading Floor, Data Center,
and all the engineering efforts required for all of the Stifel floors, as
well as coordinated with the tenant architect. The project team also
provided Advance Transition Planning services, which emphasized
broader issues, such as scheduling and finalizing the strategic
approach to the moment of technology.
TSS also provided Construction Management Services, in parallel
with the design effort; providing Stifel with a complete turnkey
package.
Currently, TSS is performing ongoing Facilities Management
Services for Stifel Baltimore’s Data Center. This includes on-site
Facility Management, with the use of the TSS “Start-up team”, full
maintenance and warranty coverage on many the major systems
supporting the Data Center. Specifically, this includes the air
conditioning, pumps, air handlers, IR Scanning of main electrical
components, as well as Mechanical and Electrical Systems. TSS is
also providing a 4-hour emergency service program.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Stifel Nicolas & Company, Inc. (Stifel)- Denver
Denver, Colorado
TSS provided services for consolidation/renovation of Stifel offices
in Denver. Stifel consolidated occupancy for its Denver, Colorado
facility. Stifel occupied Floors 15, 16, and 17 of an office building.
Floors 15 and 17 were returned to the landlord and Stifle
consolidated all staff and Data Center operations to the 16th floor.
TSS provided TC and CM Services for the consolidation and
transition of the four departments to the 16th floor and relocated the
17th floor. TSS designed the site and building modifications in
accordance with applicable codes and standards. TSS also provided
Advance Transition Planning services, which emphasized broad
issues such as scheduling and finalizing the strategic understanding
of the tasks and resources required for effective transition.
4.1.4
Migration Project Experience
Contract Customer:
Address:
Bureau of National Affairs (BNA)
Washington, DC
SECTION 4
Scope of Work:
TSS is providing a Data Center Requirements Analysis and is
providing Technology Planning Services necessary for the
relocation of the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. to its new location
in Crystal City Virginia. Services include the following:





Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Data Center Requirements Analysis. TSS is planning and
programming to evaluate existing space, replace, modify, reuse,
expand, migrate, and move BNA’s existing Data Center into
BNA’s new headquarters in Virginia.
Structured Cable Plant Design and Coordination. TSS is
designing the distribution voice, data, and video cable plant
(estimated at between 1400 and 1600-drop positions, plus Data
Center requirements) for BNA’s new facility in accordance
with applicable codes and standards. To facilitate a cohesive
effort, TSS is working in close cooperation with the established
building design team.
LAN/WAN Network Communications Architecture. In this
phase, TSS will assess the physical and functional foundation
of BNA’s telecommunications requirements by conducting a
staff survey and a documentation review. TSS will provide a
written memorandum of its findings, summarizing both the
interviews/surveys and the documentation review.
Voice Switch Requirements. TSS will design BNA’s new voice
network environment and manage its installation. TSS will
specify a robust voice system in accordance with industry
standards and will satisfy the local and remote demands of the
BNA user base.
Technology Transition Planning. To successfully support the IT
transition aspect of the project, TSS will assist BNA by
providing the Advanced Planning component of Technology
Transition Planning and Implementation services. Following
the completion of this effort, TSS will provide BNA a proposal
for completing the Implementation Planning and Relocation
Execution services.
Smithsonian Institution (SI)
Herndon, VA
TSS provided transition planning and construction consulting for
the occupancy of the Smithsonian’s (SI) new central Data Center
located in Herndon, VA. Chief among the TSS responsibilities
were coordination and documentation of all equipment inventory,
development of transition details and schedules and preparation of
technical installation and testing plans.
TSS role in the transition planning effort was comprehensive. TSS
developed SI’s Advance Transition Concept Plan (including
identification of the baseline project planning assumptions) and
then turned to more detailed planning activities. Within this detail,
TSS was actively involved throughout the effort: Devised detailed
transition event project schedules for each migration event;
coordinated the services of numerous equipment and move vendors;
maintained the equipment inventory on behalf of the client;
SECTION 4
organized the event-specific Move Operations Center; defined the
roles, responsibilities and assignments for event staffing; and
maintained regular management contact to update them on the
planning/performance process.
TSS also assisted SI by ensuring that the infrastructure of their Data
Center was adequate for the institution’s future requirements. TSS
services included space planning, as well as load confirmation for
both power and cooling requirements. TSS first developed a
growth model, analyzing technology concepts and relating them to
the facility design considerations. TSS developed facility design
criteria, as well as multiple layout options suggesting alternatives
for the placement of specific equipment and room furnishings.
During the course of construction, TSS performed regular site
observations for the cabling installation and participated in
construction progress meetings. TSS ensured that construction
activities were performed in accordance with the guidelines and
requirements of the drawings and specifications, as well as from
instructions obtained through periodic discussions with SI’s
representatives.
Our FM division was instrumental in the design and build of this
facility, including approximately 28,000 square feet of office space
and nearly 20,000 square feet of Data Center. Beginning with a
facility analysis, Vortech performed a physical inventory of all
Electrical, Mechanical, Security, and Network Infrastructure
components. This assessment led to a design-build renovation.
Vortech performed a complete electrical renovation, from general
purpose power requirements for office areas to critical power and
control requirements for Data Center applications. Also, Vortech
installed all security pathways including backbone trough and
branch conduits for devices throughout the facility.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Time Warner Cable (TWC) -National Data Center (NDC)
Herndon, VA
TSS provided transition planning and construction consulting for
the occupancy of Time Warner Cable’s new National Data Center
in Herndon, VA. Chief among the TSS responsibilities were
coordination and documentation of all equipment inventory,
development of transition details and schedules and preparation of
technical installation and testing plans.
TSS also assisted TWC by ensuring that the infrastructure of their
Data Center was adequate for the firm’s future requirements. TSS
services included space planning, as well as load analyses for both
power and cooling requirements. TSS first developed a growth
model, analyzing technology concepts and relating them to the
NDC’s facility design considerations. Facility design criteria were
developed, as well as multiple layout options suggesting alternatives
on the placement of specific equipment and room furnishings.
TSS briefed the TWC Operations Team on the design concepts and
utilization of the potential new NDC infrastructure. The
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Management Team accepted the recommendations and initiated the
facility project improvements.
During the course of construction, TSS performed regular site
observations and participated in construction progress meetings.
TSS ensured that construction activities were performed in
accordance with the guidelines and requirements of the drawings
and specifications, as well as from instructions obtained through
periodic discussions with Road Runner representatives.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
TSS is providing Oklahoma University Health Science Center
(OUHSC) which is located on the Oklahoma City campus, with a
program of requirements for a new primary Data Center and a
detailed relocation plan for the consolidation /relocation of IT
servers, storage, network, and telecom equipment from the existing
University of Oklahoma campus locations into the new Data
Center.
The University of Oklahoma currently maintains four (4) separate
technology areas across its campus and is moving all four into a
single Data Center. The four (4) areas to be moved into the single
facility are as follows: Primary Data Center, Network Operations
Center (NOC), Telephony Operations Center (TOC), and a Back-up
Data Center.
OHSC is part of the Oklahoma Health Center comprised of thirtyone entities that are strategically co-located in a 300-acre complex
near downtown Oklahoma city with a capital investment of $25
Billion and a combined employee base of 12,500. The new Data
Center will house mission-critical IT infrastructure, supporting the
use of the telephone, network, storage, and servers for teaching,
research, administrative, clinical, and hospital application purposes.
Contract Customer:
Address:
Scope of Work:
Fannie Mae Reston Data Center
Washington, DC
TSS’ staff planned and managed the transition of Fannie Mae’s
Data Center from Washington, DC to Reston, VA. Fannie Mae
backfilled the space formerly occupied by Sallie Mae’s Data
Center.
Advanced Transition Planning. Fannie Mae was faced with the
daunting task of moving more than 1600 Data Center devices
without impacting its financial business operations. TSS first
developed a sophisticated Advance Plan to determine both the
strategy and tech transition budget for the project. TSS also
identified issues to be addressed and tracked through the use of a
comprehensive project plan. Potential conflicts between vendors
were also defined and resolved.
Implementation Planning. In order to identify risks and prepare for
contingencies, TSS’ technical teams followed-up by preparing detailed implementation plans and logistical procedures for the move
SECTION 4
phases. They defined the role for a Move Operations Center
(MOC) to provide each move with a strong command and control
element. TSS also continued to coordinate with many of the
outside equipment vendors (Compaq, Sun, and IBM) who were
involved in the transition, as well as specifying the responsibilities
for Move Vendor and coordinating their contract vehicle.
The move was performed over 13 weekend move phases, with
minimal disruption to Fannie Mae’s internal operations or access by
any of its customers.
Facilities Infrastructure Consulting. TSS has also assisted Fannie
Mae by ensuring that the infrastructure of their Herndon Data
Center would amply support the firm’s future requirements. TSS
services included space planning, as well as load analyses for both
power and cooling requirements. TSS first developed a growth
model, analyzing technology concepts and relating them to the
facility design considerations. Design criteria were then developed,
as well as multiple layout options suggesting alternatives on the
placement of specific equipment and room furnishings.
SECTION 4
DATA CENTER
CONSULTING
SECTION 4
5
DATA CENTER CONSULTING
5.1
INNOVATIVE PROJECT APPROACH
TSS has utilized a process for numerous clients over the past 25 years. A key element that makes us
uniquely qualified to support client is our in house IT expertise which enables us to interact with our
clients business and IT management in order to begin at the “Starting Point” in the
“determination/confirmation of User Requirements”. By understanding the overall IT strategy a
comprehensive and consistent facility framework can be established for the design and operation of
the corporate Data Center facility infrastructure
Our IT expertise coupled with an outstanding group of Architects and Engineers focused only on
mission critical Data Center infrastructures, has enabled us to develop conceptual and schematic
level Basis of Designs (BOD) as the critical starting point for the completion of over 80% of our
projects. We are firm believers that establishing the correct requirements including the identification
of a facility’s day one and projected future needs is critical to the success of any project. We apply
this principal to existing facilities as well as the first component in the site selection process for new
facilities.
5.2
DIFFERENTIATOR
TSS possesses four main characteristics that differentiate us from our competition within the
mission critical field:
1. Experience in the Mission-Critical Industry. The Total Site Solutions team has more experience
in the mission-critical industry than most firms in the country. Many members of the TSS team
have been designing mission-critical space and infrastructure systems since the early 1980s.
2. Only Mission-Critical Focus. The TSS team provides services in the mission-critical industry
only. All team members are specifically focused on the requirements and challenges of the
mission-critical client.
3. IT Professionals are In-House. TSS employees IT professionals and telecommunications
engineers as part of our in-house staff. These professionals perform services such as future
systems modeling and load projections, network design, telecom/cabling infrastructure. These
capabilities further enhance the team's ability to deliver a project that meets both current and
future requirements. This in-house talent also helps augments and supports the client's IT staff
by providing certain services (equipment configurations, load calculations, growth models). In
addition, the TSS IT staff can offer industry best practices and alternative system configurations
that can help a client see new perspectives of the IT market
4. Personnel Depth. The TSS team has significant depth of personnel in all design disciplines. TSS
has the architectural, mechanical, electrical, telecomm, IT, and security system design
professionals required to deliver this project on-time and within budget.
5. Planning and Estimating. The TSS in-house Planning and Estimating team provides significant
budgeting experience that is employed from the initial programming phase throughout the
project life cycle. TSS’ in-house construction and facility maintenance capability provides input
to the design team ensuring that the design approach includes a “Hands On” constructability,
scheduling, and budget consciousness throughout the project.
We believe that these factors, combined with our history and general industry experience, truly set
us apart in the Data Center services industry.
SECTION 5
DATA CENTER
MIGRATION
EXPERIENCE
SECTION 5
6
DATA CENTER MIGRATION EXPERIENCE
6.1
EXPERIENCE WITH DATA CENTER MIGRATIONS
Yes, TSS has staff dedicated to the management and support of Data Center migrations. While our
services can be highly customized to meet the varying needs of our clients, we have developed a
structured approach for these types of projects that helps assure a comprehensive yet efficient
consideration of the broad range of planning issues presented by these migration projects.
We have provided a description of our typical information technology migration project approach
below. Some representative migration projects can be found in the Project Reference section.
6.2
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MIGRATION SERVICES
TSS has supported numerous clients through the scope of services relating to our process for IT
Transition Planning. These planning services are targeted at addressing the technical challenges
linked to the migration of desktop systems, servers, network environment and telecommunications
services from the client’s present facility to its proposed new location.
1. Through the first step, Advanced Planning, TSS performs a needs analysis and establishes the
framework for commencing the project. TSS’ established Advance Planning identifies the
scope of the transition, and develops a clear understanding of the objectives, priorities,
timeframes and areas of concern regarding the transition.
Advanced Planning emphasizes broad planning issues such as project scheduling and the
strategic approach to technology migration. Our efforts will be targeted at establishing a clear
understanding of the tasks, resources and timeframes required for the effective transition of
circuits, equipment, applications and services, as well as outlining steps that must be taken
leading up to those events. TSS would conduct a round of interviews and meetings to develop a
set of major transition concerns and issues. A schedule of major milestones would also be
developed. Anticipated budget costs (organized into different scenario options), any long-lead
requirements, and other demands on resources are also developed.
2. In the Implementation Planning Phase, specific objectives and detailed planning criteria are
developed. A project schedule for the tasks required to prepare for the migration is developed,
and then used to track project progress. Regular planning meetings are conducted and
documented in order to assign specific tasks and responsibilities to the vendors/internal parties;
follow-up is performed to ensure their completion. TSS develops detailed, move event
schedules, which model each migration event. These schedules are used to estimate migration
event staffing requirements, and to track equipment and other related migration task completion
for each migration phase. TSS also develops a command and control plan for the conduct of
migration events, which includes issue tracking and escalation, communications, and
contingency management procedures.
TSS can also provide support for third party services procurements (Mover; Cable Plant
Installation; Phone System; Telco Services; Technical Support; etc.) and coordination of those
services.
3. In the Relocation Implementation Phase, the actual physical or logical relocation of any
server equipment, communications equipment, and user systems takes place. The relocation
plans developed in the previous phases are implemented. TSS provides on-site management
and coordination throughout the move to ensure the timely completion of all elements of the
SECTION 5
relocation plan and schedules. TSS support staff performs the relocation tasks, and coordinates
the resources, for which they are made responsible.
6.3
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MIGRATION EXPERIENCE
TSS has provided IT migration planning services to over 50 clients (representing over 10,000
servers or related Data Center items), in the public and private sector. Our project experience
includes:

The relocation of over 1500 servers and related Data Center equipment for a client across 13
migration events

The relocation of over 300 servers and related equipment in a single migration event

The relocation of servers between Data Centers more than 600 miles apart

Support for both the physical and logical relocation of application platforms
SECTION 6
INDUSTRY TRENDS
SECTION
7
INDUSTRY TRENDS
7.1
TREND TRACKING
TSS is actively tracking the following mission-critical strategic issues. As each continues to
develop, TSS is monitoring the concepts, their impact upon the design of mission-critical facilities
and proposed industry solutions for each area:

Information Technology Virtualization and Consolidation – Virtualization and
consolidation of applications from many small platforms onto larger platforms is having an
impact on how organizations address operational issues including; centralization of
infrastructure and management, capacity planning and business continuity. These issues
directly influence the overall Data Center design concepts utilized in developing a new
facility including; expansion, flexibility, reliability, and maintainability.

High Density Computing Environment – Many organizations have begun to utilize High
Density Blade (HDB) equipment. This equipment can cause rack power consumption to be
as high as 20 kW today projected to reach 30 kW in the next 18 months. New mechanical
systems and design methods will need to be employed to address the evolving HDB
environment.

DC Power Distribution Within the Data Center – There are potential facility infrastructure
advantages that may be attributable to the utilization of distributing Direct Current (DC)
power within the Data Center. This is a relatively new concept that is applicable in the high
density IT equipment environment. We are evaluating the viability of this concept and the
advantages it suggest; reduced energy costs, lower heat loads, reduced floor space
requirements, etc. Implementation of this concept also requires the cooperation by IT
Equipment Manufacturers.

Energy costs have risen significantly over the past 5 years. - As a result, Data Center
operating costs are almost equal to the IT capital expenditures for new equipment. Electrical
energy costs now represent 30% of the entire Data Center operating budget. From this
perspective, we have abandoned outdated design practices that result in the implementation
of systems with very low energy efficiencies. Without reducing systems' reliability, our
findings and recommendations have resulted in a comprehensive team mission, which is
aimed at implementing energy saving strategies
7.2
DESIGN INNOVATION
At TSS we realize that Data Center environments are different from occupied commercial space
environments. Many of the commercial design methodologies are either outdated or inefficient. As
such, when applied to Data Centers the overall design will result in increased energy consumption
and lower system efficiencies. From this perspective, we have abandoned outdated design practices
that result in the implementation of systems with very low energy efficiencies. Without reducing
systems' reliability, our findings and recommendations have resulted in a comprehensive team
mission, which is aimed at implementing the following innovative design strategies:





High efficiency UPS and PDU's
Variable Primary pumping systems
High delta cooling
Non condensing loops with >60 F Chilled water temperatures
Thermal storage systems (where applicable)
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 Use of economizers to capture the natural cooling cycles of mothernature
 Redirecting waste heat from the IT equipment for other uses in buildings or processes
 Consideration of DC power where possible
 Use of renewable energy where possible
 Use of exterior building and site development features to reduce energy consumption
Most recently, TSS is engaged in designing a prototype “pod” Data Center design, which utilizes a
central air handling unit for cooling. Within the pod, the hot aisle cold aisle are completely
segregated, a supply wall delivers the cool air at 68F db, 50% RH, 50 F dp to the cold aisle. Energy
savings are realized by raising the hot aisle temperature to 105 F thus increasing the temperature
difference and reducing the airflow and fan horsepower. The pod is designed in such a way that the
air handler supplies and returns air directly over the hot and cold aisles with no ductwork necessary.
We believe there are significant savings to be realized from the higher temperature deltas, reduced
horsepower, reduced use of ductwork and material and improved air management within the pod.
All the practices mentioned above are available today, sometimes with associated increases in
project capital cost, but always with significant realizations in savings of the total cost of ownership
(TCO). These strategies translate directly to lowering the facility Power Usage Effectiveness
(PUE).
With regard to tools to measure and analyze the effectiveness of individual elements, TSS believes
that the most important foundational data for Data Center design analysis is an accurate inventory of
our clients existing equipment as well as a clear picture of the organization's expected future
growth. This important information determines the facility’s power starting point, the life-cycle
growth trends and, ultimately, the size of the connected infrastructure. With this critical data inhand, we can achieve an effective mechanical/electrical plant design, with the highest possible
efficiency and power factor from the mission’s earliest stage throughout its useful life. An accurate
growth model also helps to plan a system that will expand with ideal step sizes, maximizing
efficiency throughout the Data Center’s lifespan.
At TSS, we use specific software for load calculations to determine coincident, peak power and
resulting cooling load. Loads are also calculated using a custom spreadsheet program to ensure
quality control of data. Where life cycle cost analysis is required, TSS typically conducts a second
analysis using DOE’s Equest application or a customized spreadsheet (depending on the project's
complexity). These tools collectively allow us to build “what if” scenarios and compare different
factors of system performance at varying loads.
To maximize space cooling and air flow, TSS often utilizes an industry practice of “hot aisle/cold
aisle” design with direct path or plenum return air. For very high density applications, TSS utilizes
passive design methods such as in-row cooling and compartmentalized configuration approaches.
We also utilize computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to help design space layouts of a
more complicated nature, where high density applications and/or non-standard architectural
elements are present. All calculations are conducted using TSS' full-time engineering staff.
7.3
LEED CERTIFICATION
Several of our engineering team members have been actively involved with LEED projects either at
TSS or during previous employments. As such, we are very familiar with the certification process
and we realize the importance of LEED in achieving “greener” and more efficient design. At TSS
we realize that the LEED certification system was intended for occupied buildings and there are
some shortfalls when it is applied to Data Centers. This is why we tend to emphasize the budget
and life cycle cost associated with implementing each LEED point. We have recently completed
several LEED evaluations for:

A major utilities customers


7.4
SECTION
A major Co-location services providers new Data Center in Southern California
A major IT equipment vendor and service provider
PROJECT COST CONTROL
We have found that the development of a Basis of Design with a rough order of magnitude
construction cost at the beginning of the project is the best way to control costs throughout the
project. This serves two purposes; it establishes a realistic estimate of probable cost from which to
work from, and it spells out the design criteria from which the construction documents will be
developed. Identifying the design criteria benefits both the designer and client, particularly later in
the construction document phase when design decisions are made. The construction cost estimates
are produced by TSS’ Planning & Estimating Department, part of the Construction Management
Division. Because estimates are prepared by our in-house construction professionals, TSS can
assure that the project can be built for that for that cost.
One of the strengths and uniqueness of TSS is that we have an in-house design department as well
as a construction estimating department. At key milestones of the design process, the drawings are
submitted to the estimating department for an internal budget check. Accordingly, the results are
shared with the client and measures are taken to control cost and budget back to the original target.
For certain clients, TSS engages the services of an independent third party to obtain budget
construction cost estimates.
At each design milestone, the construction cost will be updated based on the information developed
to date, and any deviations from the original BOD and estimate will be readily apparent. If costs are
higher than desired, modifications or reductions to the scope can be implemented. Should costs be
less than budgeted, the client may consider additional scope or other improvements to the project
not originally included in the BOD. At every design milestone there is an opportunity to discuss
value engineering options that can benefit the project.
7.5
PROJECT SCHEDULE CONTROL
We utilize a variety of Project Management Processes within the Technology Consulting Division
to maintain the project schedule. On virtually all design projects, a Project Director is assigned to
manage and coordinate our in-house resources and to interface with the client and other project team
members. The PD is the client’s primary point of contact at TSS; there is also a Principal in Charge
assigned to each project.
At the award of a project, an internal kick-off meeting is conducted by the PD to review the project
scope and to designate the responsibilities of all team members, including estimated hours and
timeframes. Subsequently a kick-off meeting is held with the client and their project team to
identify roles and responsibilities, and to establish project milestones and deliverables.
Communication among all parties throughout the design phase is vital to the success of any project.
Working along with outside consultants on a complex project is a difficult task. To expedite the
flow of information in both directions, our Project Director acts as the liaison between TSS’s design
engineers and the clients project team. This helps ensure that milestones will be met and the project
will remain on schedule.
TSS’ Accounting Department provides data in a format that allows the PD to monitor in-house
hours expended and other project costs on a biweekly basis. Additionally, TSS utilizes Microsoft
Project to track progress, including project deliverables, milestone dates, etc.
7.6
LIFE-CYCLE DESIGN
Data Centers are made up of two separate entities with different life cycles. IT equipment and
facilities infrastructure equipment. While IT equipment has life cycles of 3 to 5 years at most,
SECTION
facility infrastructure life cycles can go up to 15 - 20 years if well maintained. In addition to the
difference in life cycles, the impact of Moore’s law on processors translates to faster servers that
consume more power and cooling. If any design consideration needs to be accounted for at dayone, it is that the Data Center needs to accommodate the ever changing server configurations at
faster speeds and higher power and cooling requirements. At TSS we realize that any Data Center
design will need to take into consideration these life cycle factors:
 Reliability/Availability
 Maintainability/Serviceability
 Upgradeability
 Sustainability
 Installability
 Testability/Inspectability
 Safety
 Human Factors
These life cycle factors provide the engineering team with a basis from which modular and scalable
solutions are evaluated and ranked. TSS’ design team also looks at the costs involved over the life
cycle in order to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership or Life Cycle Costs (LCC) for each design
approach. This is an essential exercise during the design process whereby the costs of several
design approaches are evaluated using a present net worth dollar figure. At TSS we have found
very interesting results which show that while scalable and modular designs may cost higher
initially, the savings over the life cycle is tangible and is worth investing in.
7.7
DESIGN APPROACH
The earlier sections highlighted TSS’ approach during the design phases of a new project. We
would implement the same methodology for this type of project. Our design team will gather data
through meetings and surveys with our client. We will investigate the most efficient systems, rank
and weigh each system and eventually after discussions with the client, focus the effort to the
preferred list of candidates. During the selection phase, life cycle analysis will be undertaken to
fine tune the system selection process and further at certain design milestones, construction budgets
will be prepared for the client. These budgets are internally dissected and changes within the design
made so that the project remains within the target construction budget. Other progress milestones
are submitted to the client as well as internally quality controlled by the design team. The final
preparations are then made to finalize the construction document drawings and submit for permits
and bids.
ca s e st u dy
The Library of Congress Revolutionizes the Visitor
Experience with Help from Terremark
CHALLENGE
The Library of Congress is America’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. Its collections
include more than 32 million books and other print materials, 2.9 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3
million maps, 5.5 million pieces of sheet music, and 61 million manuscripts. And while the Library of Congress serves
officially as the research arm of the U.S. Congress, its goal is to make its resources available and useful to the American
people and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.
As the Library began looking for ways to manage growing visitor volume and deliver an outstanding experience, it
became clear that interactive technology and the Library’s Web site would play critical roles in meeting these needs.
DEFINING A NEXT-GENERATION VISITOR EXPERIENCE
While the Library of Congress is home to significant historical materials and artifacts, it does not function like a
museum. Instead of simply putting rare, fragile artifacts on display, the Library team wanted to create a window into
the Library and into the creative processes that result in knowledge. For example, the Library houses the original
handwritten rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, which shows words crossed out, substitutions, and new
ideas—tracing the authors’ actual thought processes that resulted in the final draft. The only way to allow millions of
people to actually experience the Declaration of Independence’s evolution to it’s final form, while protecting the original
documents, would be to make it available online.
The solution that emerged is the Library of Congress Experience at www.myloc.gov. Based on interactive, on-site kiosks
that enable visitors to interact virtually with three-dimensional models of artifacts and documents, it also includes a
companion Web site that replicates the on-site visitor experience.
Developing the project and ensuring continuous availability of the interactive experiences, a richly-interactive Web
site, and the links between them for millions of users made this project exceptionally challenging. The Library of
Congress Experience team decided to look outside of the organization for help. Microsoft, Portal Solutions, and other
technology partners provided the software and expertise for the interactive kiosks and content management system.
To make the entire new interactive experience available online, the Library chose Terremark to provide a fully managed
infrastructure for the site.
“Terremark provided an unusual combination of hosting expertise and a global experience” said Robert Sokol, program
manager of the Library of Congress Experience. “The company’s international reach is important because many of our
collections and constituency are international, and 60 percent of our materials are in languages other than English. We
are pleased that the company can securely manage four to five million accounts and hundreds of millions of page views
per year.”
ACCELERATING DELIVERY OF A WORLD-CLASS SITE
Initially the Library’s requirements for its Web site specified hosting, intrusion prevention, and firewall services.
However, Terremark quickly identified additional requirements:
•
Access to significant and diverse Internet connectivity for sustaining extraordinary traffic volumes from visitors
around the world
•
High performance for delivering interactive content to visitors worldwide
•
100-percent service level agreements (SLAs) for power, connectivity, and 24x7 network operations and
monitoring
•
Access to development and professional services expertise
•
Comprehensive managed security services delivered with a 24x7 Security Operations Center
•
An experienced implementation team to successfully accelerate deployment
The Library of Congress chose Terremark’s Highly Managed Hosting™ service, which provides the highest levels of
support and availability in the industry. Hosted in Terremark’s NAP of the Americas® datacenter, the Library’s hosting
solution helps ensure that its site adheres to rigorous application SLAs, in addition to hardware and network uptime
measures. Terremark created custom transaction monitors to measure the Library’s site performance. For example,
HTML monitors continuously verify that the site is up and operational. Transactional application monitors track the
application’s availability. Other tools are used by the Library’s I.T. team to review server statistics, network statistics,
and service calls.
Highly Managed Hosting includes full support and troubleshooting throughout the stack including custom application
code. In order to effectively provide this service, Terremark establishes comprehensive application documentation that
details which steps are required to return the Library’s application to service in the event of a failure. This knowledge
base accelerates incident response and problem resolution to minimize downtime in the event of issues.
The Library team is also able to make use of Terremark’s digitalOps® Command Center. This innovative webbased portal provides real-time visibility into service ticketing, systems configuration data, performance trending
and reporting tools and a comprehensive monitoring and availability interface. Today the Library team can see the
same data and views that the Terremark staff sees in real time, increasing transparency and facilitating effective
communication between Terremark and Library infrastructure and application teams.
PROVIDING MANAGEMENT SUPPORT
The Library of Congress has access to a dedicated Terremark systems engineer who is deeply familiar with
the Library’s site and application. As the site was launched, the Terremark team provided expert management
recommendations that significantly simplified site management for the Library’s I.T. team. Terremark continues
to monitor usage trends and to proactively identify unusual application behavior in order to prevent potential
performance issues.
NO ORDINARY HOSTING PROJECT - A MAXIMUM SECURITY POSTURE
Because the Library’s hosted myloc.gov site is highly strategic, the Library decided to supplement its security
protection with several new services from Terremark, such as the Managed Security Portal. This comprehensive
service enables the Library team to access custom reports, track the status of all security tickets, review incident
management notes, and see all of the security data that Terremark collects on their behalf.
In addition to its traditional strong firewall protection, Terremark added inline intrusion prevention devices that
inspect all inbound and outbound data packets, identify malicious behavior and block threats as they occur. Terremark
integrated its Managed Intrusion Detection and Prevention Service into the Security Portal for the Library project, and
this capability is now being offered to all Terremark clients. The Terremark Security Operations Center (SOC) provides
proactive, around-the-clock monitoring and management.
As part of the intrusion prevention services, Terremark aggregates log files from the Library’s hosted myloc.gov
network, security, and server devices using its Log Aggregation Service. This includes a unique ability to integrate
network security scan information with “as-it-happens” log information to correlate a threat with a known vulnerability
and take proactive action. The Log Aggregation and Security Information Management Service delivers comprehensive
visibility across the entire security and network architecture to monitor how it is responding to security threats, and
helps ensure that the SOC is mitigating real threats.
Many recent Web site attacks have taken advantage of application vulnerabilities in Web and database servers. To
help prevent similar attacks on the Library’s Web site, Terremark used innovative application vulnerability assessments
to coordinate late-night scans, so that any vulnerability could be mitigated. Now that the site is launched, Terremark is
conducting additional testing to identify any new, potential vulnerabilities.
SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH
The Library of Congress Experience opened in April 2008 allowing visitors for the first time to virtually “handle”
artifacts like the Gutenberg Bible and original books from Thomas Jefferson’s library. Visitors receive their Passports to
Knowledge, which guide them through the exhibits and the building.
“Without Terremark, I don’t think we could have done this,” said Jo Ann Jenkins, Library COO. “The project scope was
far outside our scope of experience, but Terremark brought it all together. Instead of being a local Washington, D.C.
attraction, we have become a significant bridge between the national and international community—as well as a bridge
to the future.”
Thanks to Terremark Highly Managed Hosting, the Library has ensured that its hosted myloc.gov Web site will
continue to support large numbers of virtual visitors, including students and teachers who use browser sessions to
make their Library of Congress Experiences highly interactive and personalized. As the number of site visitors grows,
the Library can be confident that its hosting platform, storage area network, security, network, and applications are
operating optimally. In addition, as security threats evolve, so can the Library’s protection with Terremark’s security
capabilities.
“The Library’s skills in envisioning an innovative, feature-rich site strongly complemented Terremark’s significant
hosting, network and security expertise,” said Jamie Dos Santos, CEO of Terremark’s Federal Group. “The results are
magnificent.”
The Library will complete its launch of the Library of Congress Experience on December 11, 2008. By then visitors will
have additional kiosks, expanded interactive access to Library treasures and collections, and expanded access to online
accounts.
Terremark Worldwide, Inc. One Biscayne Tower, 2 S. Biscayne Blvd. Ste 2900 Miami, FL 33131
terremark.com
TMRK_LOC/122008
Customer
Case Study
The Independent Purchasing Cooperative for SUBWAY®
Restaurants Takes a Fresh Approach to High-Availability Services
Executive Summary
Business Challenge
Company
Ensure high availability for the SUBWAY® cash card
program, providing franchisees with 24x7 access to
their accounts.
INDEPENDENT PURCHASING COOPERATIVE
A purchasing cooperative for SUBWAY® Restaurants in
the US and Canada operating from Miami, Florida, USA.
www.ipcoop.com
Terremark Solutions:
Terremark Managed Router Services
Terremark Professional Services—Remote Hands
Business Results
• Achieved 100-percent uptime and Internet connectivity
• Greatly reduced risk of external threats to data security
• Gained flexibility to easily deploy new franchisee services
Quote:
“We are very impressed with Terremark. They run a first-class data operation — from guaranteed power and
environmentals to the secure, purpose-built facility. Terremark took a very progressive stance in providing us with
the technology infrastructure that we needed.”
— George Labelle, Chief Information Officer
“From the person operating the service elevator, to the receiving department, to the NOC — they are extremely
conscious of our needs, polite, and professional. They understand our business and are committed to us as a
customer. The customer service at Terremark is outstanding.”
— Tom Endter, Network Administrator
Customer
Case Study
Taking a Fresh Look at Service Availability
The SUBWAY® Restaurant system is the world’s largest submarine sandwich franchise, with more than 27,600 restaurants in
85 countries. Franchisees of the 24,000 North American restaurants are members of the Independent Purchasing Cooperative
(IPC), which has the charter of helping franchisees succeed and maintain a competitive advantage in the fiercely competitive
restaurant industry. IPC negotiates optimal pricing for all of the goods and services that franchisees purchase. In addition,
IPC helps monitor food quality and safety, manages a network of vendors and distributors to ensure timely product deliveries,
and facilitates purchase transactions.
In 2006, the company launched an important initiative to introduce SUBWAY® electronic cash cards, which can be purchased
and redeemed in any North American location. Because restaurants are owned by 11,000 different franchisees, the program
required a significant investment in operational and financial systems to allow the cards to work seamlessly anywhere in North
America while ensuring that each franchisee’s account was safeguarded. In addition, franchisees must be able to easily view
their account balances and reconcile them with their own point-of-sale data to ensure proper crediting.
In 2006, IPC decided to bring the program in-house, along with the IPC web site, to simplify program management and to
develop the tools that provide franchisees with around-the-clock access to their account information. Prior to 2006, IPC
had dedicated a portion of its office space to house its email and file servers. In addition, IPC had to invest substantially in
dedicated electrical circuits to overcome problems with unreliable power.
“If disaster struck, our building was vulnerable to power outages and our systems would be at risk,” said George Labelle, IPC
chief information officer. “In 2005 we experienced four hurricanes, including Wilma and Katrina. When an outage does occur,
it really affects our business. In the past, we had discussed co-locating our servers in a data center, but the real tipping point
came when we took ownership of the cash card program. Because the SUBWAY® cash card program is mission-critical for
franchisees, it had to be available 24x7.”
IPC and Terremark—A Fresh Fit
To meet its new high availability requirements, IPC undertook a detailed RFP process. Mr. Labelle and his team narrowed their
search to four facilities and scrutinized every detail — from the facility specifications and size of the diesel tanks attached
to the facility’s generators, to security, price, and the company’s financial stability. They chose Terremark and its NAP of the
Americas.® The NAP of the Americas® is a fortress-style facility that provides state-of-the-art security and guaranteed power
and environmentals, and availability for peering, managed, and dedicated hosting services.
World-leading carriers, Internet service providers, and content providers are housed at the NAP of the Americas® enabling
customers to take advantage of massive, carrier-neutral connectivity for extending their reach anywhere in the world. And the
NAP facility itself is designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.
“I was surprised that we had decided to colocate services to avoid the effects of hurricanes and here in Miami we were touring
a state-of-the art bunker that had been proven reliable one hurricane season after another,” stated Mr. Labelle. “We are very
impressed with Terremark. They run a first-class data operation — from guaranteed power and environmentals to the secure,
purpose-built facility. Terremark took a very progressive stance in providing us with the technology infrastructure that we
needed.”
Terremark’s Managed Router Service delivers reliable high-capacity, low-latency Internet Access and ensures IPC best
performance routing across the world’s leading domestic and international Tier-1 carriers. With direct access to the backbones
of leading European, Latin American, and Asia/Pacific Rim carriers, IPC is connected directly to the heart of the Internet. No
other platform in the world offers this kind of redundancy and close proximity to routes on the public Internet.
With a global community of service providers located at the NAP of the Americas,® IPC can easily scale its Internet services
up to 10 Gbps if necessary, giving it plenty of capacity for handling franchisee web site traffic. The Terremark Remote Hands
offering enables IPC to receive help from a Terremark technician for basic troubleshooting and maintenance tasks when
necessary.
“Terremark people go out of their way to help,” said Tom Endter, IPC network administrator. “From the person operating the
service elevator, to the receiving department, to the NOC — they are extremely conscious of our needs, polite, and professional.
They understand our business and are committed to helping us succeed. The customer service at Terremark is outstanding.”
A Fresh Approach Pays Off
IPC successfully launched the SUBWAY® cash card program system-wide and recorded more than $23,000,000 in cash card
sales in 2006. The service also recorded 100-percent levels of uptime and Internet connectivity. Mr. Labelle no longer worries
about data security either. While the office building is as secure as any office building can be, moving the data to the NAP of
the Americas® significantly reduced the risk of external threat to the company’s data.
“We’re extremely pleased with their performance,” said Mr. Labelle. “Moving everything to Terremark was a huge relief for
everyone.”
Customer
Case Study
Next Steps
Now that IPC’s data and systems reside at the NAP of the Americas,® the organization is considering taking ownership of other
mission-critical systems to further drive benefits for its franchisees.
“With Terremark, we now have those capabilities whenever we’re ready, and that’s a good feeling,” said Mr. Endter. “We’re
always looking for ways to enhance franchisee services and reduce costs. It’s now much easier.”
About Terremark
Terremark Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMRK) is a leading global provider of IT infrastructure services
delivered on the industry’s most robust and advanced operations platform. Leveraging datacenters in
the United States, Europe and Latin America and access to massive and diverse network connectivity,
Terremark delivers government and enterprise customers a comprehensive suite of managed solutions
including hosting, colocation, connectivity and security services. Terremark’s acclaimed Infinistructure™
utility computing architecture has redefined industry standards for scalable and flexible computing
infrastructure and its DigitalOps® service platform combines end-to-end systems management workflow
with a comprehensive customer portal. More information about Terremark Worldwide can be found at http://
www.terremark.com.
ca s e st u dy
Informática El Corte Inglés and Terremark Help the
Dominican Republic Launch its Number Portability
Service in Record Time
Marcelo Comino
Director of International Operations
Mobile voice services have taken off in Latin America and the Caribbean, making mobile telephony the fastestgrowing telecom market and revolutionizing telecommunications for people in the region. According to Latin American
Mobile Voice and Mobile Data Market (8th ed.), rapid growth in coverage and in subscriber numbers has resulted in
approximately 5 million 3G wireless subscribers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean by early 2009. Mobile
penetration has reached about 80 percent—well above the world average, which was about 58 percent in early 2009.
With rapid growth comes a need for number portability, and Spain’s Informática El Corte Inglés (IECISA) is playing a
key role in helping countries implement their systems. The El Corte Inglés Group includes 13 divisions and has more
than 100,000 employees around the world. IECISA is a leading provider of technology consulting, IT solutions, and IT
services across a wide range of market sectors in Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
A CHALLENGING NUMBER PORTABILITY LAUNCH
In January 2009, Indotel, the Dominican Republic’s state agency responsible for regulating and overseeing the
country’s telecommunication market, began the country’s process to implement number portability. The agency
requested bids from firms around the world to manage the project, which called for mobile-to-mobile and fixed-tofixed portability services to be implemented in approximately six months, by July 2009. One of the firms asked to
bid was IECISA, which had successfully deployed Spain’s number portability system a few years earlier. Based on its
portability software application and IT services expertise, IECISA won the project.
With less than six months to launch the new system, IECISA began seeking a hosting provider that could host its
application and provide disaster recovery capabilities across locations in Spain, the Dominican Republic, and the United
States. The hosting provider also had to be carrier-neutral to meet Indotel’s requirements. IECISA also wanted a strong
partner that was financially stable with a proven reputation. After evaluating numerous providers, only one already
had facilities in the three desired locations and provided complete carrier neutrality. Terremark provides top-tier
datacenters in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, combined with access to massive and diverse network
connectivity from more than 160 global carriers. It delivers a comprehensive suite of colocation, managed hosting,
cloud computing, disaster recovery, and security services from these datacenters, including those located in Madrid,
Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), and Miami. In addition, Terremark datacenters are built to be exceptionally
robust and hurricane-resistant, which was a critical factor for IECISA in choosing a datacenter located in a Caribbean
nation.
e l co rt e i n g lés
IMPLEMENTING THE PLATFORM GLOBALLY
To host its number portability application, IECISA selected Terremark and its managed hosting service, powered by
Infinistructure™, Terremark’s next-generation utility computing solution. Terremark managed hosting delivers utilityenabled, managed infrastructure that offers revolutionary levels of flexibility and scalability. The Terremark digitalOps®
service delivery platform also simplifies management with a live control center, including service ticketing, system
configuration data, performance trending and reporting tools, and a comprehensive monitoring and availability
interface. The Terremark team worked hand in hand with IECISA to deploy the number portability application across
locations in three countries.
The datacenter operated by Terremark in the Dominican Republic aggregates connections from the country’s mobile
operators, either directly or over the Internet. Data is sent over an Internet Virtual Private Network (VPN) link to the
Madrid datacenter for processing. The Dominican Republic datacenter also maintains an Internet VPN connection to
Terremark’s NAP of the Americas facility in Miami.
The Madrid datacenter provides the web, application and database servers that process number portability
transactions, maintain records, and provide storage and backup. A completely mirrored environment is maintained and
continuously replicated in the NAP of the Americas facility in Miami. In the event of an outage, the entire site fails over
to the Miami datacenter over the Internet. The Miami datacenter also functions as a testing site for new applications.
“We worked as a team with Terremark as they deployed the systems and we worked with our customer to deploy
the portability software application,” said Marcelo Comino, Director of International Operations for IECISA. “At
Terremark the platforms were already integrated and ready, which greatly simplified and accelerated our deployment.
Throughout the project we received excellent communication and proactive support from Terremark.”
MASSIVE CONNECTIVITY WITH CARRIER NEUTRALITY
Terremark is not itself a carrier, yet it provides direct links to more than 160 of the world’s telecommunications
companies through its facilities. Dominican Republic carriers connect directly to the IECISA number portability
application through Terremark’s carrier neutral datacenter, meeting a key Indotel requirement.
RIGHT PLACES AT THE RIGHT TIME
No other hosting provider offered carrier neutrality across three global locations. Terremark was able to help IECISA
deploy its application, storage, and disaster recovery infrastructure as easily in Madrid and Santo Domingo as in
Miami. Premium engineering, support, and monitoring services are offered to each facility, and with three global
locations, the implementation has built-in redundancy. Terremark also provides bilingual support to IECISA and its
Indotel customers.
ON-TIME DELIVERY
The Terremark Infinistructure utility computing platform provides IECISA with easily scalable computing resources
while Terremark staff manages all aspects of the infrastructure. Because IECISA did not have to buy, deploy or manage
systems itself, it was able to meet an aggressive time-to-market deadline. After a brief testing period the number
portability service went live on October 1, 2009.
“When you are searching for a hosting provider, you hear all of the promises,” said Mr. Comino. “With Terremark, we
receive proactive information, highly responsive service, and no surprises. Terremark went beyond simply delivering on
its promises.”
terremark.com
TMRK_IECISA/022010
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
September 25, 2009
Case Study: USA.gov Achieves Cloud Bursting
Efficiency Using Terremark’s Enterprise Cloud
by James Staten
with Lauren E. Nelson, Allison Herald, and Simon Yates
Executiv e S ummary
USA.gov, one of the busiest US government Web sites, has achieved significant cost savings by
embracing cloud computing. The US General Services Administration (GSA) has migrated all of the
core resources of the USA.gov Web portal to Terremark’s IaaS platform, The Enterprise Cloud. By using
The Enterprise Cloud, USA.gov can maintain a small persistent footprint and deploy on-demand scaling
as traffic fluctuates. GSA said this migration to the cloud has brought about a number of benefits and
savings, such as avoiding idle server costs while still accommodating huge traffic spikes, acting on users’
requests in real time, and applying security constraints atop this platform. With infrastructure flexibility
at the foundation, GSA has found both cost savings and capability improvement with its new cloud
platform.
Situation: spiky AND Unpredictable user-facing applications
When you need important information about the government and government services, the best
place to go is USA.gov, official Web portal and resource for the federal government. This Web site
is designed to help the public interact with the government more efficiently by directing people to a
wide variety of government services such as grant instructions, consumer guides, health and nutrition
updates, tax forms, driver’s license renewal, voter registration, student financial aid, and critical national
disaster information. This award-winning interagency-run Web site connects local, state, and federal
governments to one central, linked resource for the benefit of the public.1
What does this mean logistically? On any given day, USA.gov receives approximately 100 million visits.
However, because this Web site serves primarily as a hub for accessing critical information, traffic varies
substantially. For instance, when unemployment statistics are released or during a hurricane, traffic
increases dramatically. During high traffic periods in the past, users suffered long delays and downtime.
To accommodate these spikes, GSA procured and deployed hardware that for the most part sat idle —
needlessly wasting power. Not only did GSA need a new solution to improve service, but it also needed
to meet significant security regulations, such as multifactor authentication (MFA), resource tracking,
packet flow analysis, PCI compliance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA),
and on-site security at the data center facility.
Headquarters
Forrester Research, Inc., 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
Tel: +1 617.613.6000 • Fax: +1 617.613.5000 • www.forrester.com
Case Study: USA.gov Achieves Cloud Bursting Efficiency Using Terremark’s Enterprise Cloud
2
Best Practice: usa.gov uses Cloud Bursting To Handle Traffic Fluctuation
Finding the right combination of business requirements and applications is the key to success
when considering moving to the cloud. Some of the most successful cloud deployments involve
Web applications with unpredictable traffic patterns, capitalizing on the pay-per-use structure. The
USA.gov situation fits nicely into this category of applications. In its deployment, GSA took into
consideration the following elements:
·Flexibility of the cloud computing platform. GSA uses Terremark’s self-service, portal-
based cloud service, The Enterprise Cloud. In this infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform,
USA.gov has a minimum baseline capacity on a 12-month contract, while the rest is all burst
capacity or flexible capacity. In other words, when traffic is at normal levels, GSA pays only the
contracted baseline fee — but it can accommodate large traffic when needed and not pay for it
when it’s not needed. As GSA never knows exactly what kind of capacity it will need, it made
perfect sense to move to a cloud platform of this benefit.
·Minimal time for migration. USA.gov required a short, quick migration and testing process.
The site had previously been deployed in-house on Egenera BladeFrame systems, which store
workloads in VMs — making the transition to Terremark’s VM-based cloud platform simple.
The actual migration took 10 days, while the test validation occurred over the course of a single
weekend.
·Additional security elements. Terremark designed its multitenant environment to meet the
rigorous security monitoring and transparency demands of customers like government agencies.
With only a few adjustments, GSA was able to get the monitoring and reporting it desired to
manage this environment. In addition to these adjustments, GSA added a number of its own
security elements atop this cloud environment. GSA required multifactor authentication (MFA)
to access the USA.gov administrative portal, along with resource tracking, 128-bit encryption
for traffic, and packet flow analysis. GSA’s cloud resides in Terremark’s Culpeper, Va. data center
that also meets special security and defense requirements.2
Best Practice Results: USA.gov Cuts Costs And Improves Capabilities
Deputy Associate Administrator of The Office of Citizen Services, Martha Dorris, has estimated that
the move to Terremark’s cloud platform will cut costs by 90%, while improving capabilities with the
newfound infrastructure flexibility.3 Originally, customer requests were assigned a ticket that GSA
members had to act on to fulfill the request. Through the portal, each customer request is acted on
in real time. There’s no cheating on the backend, so it’s fully automated.
September 25, 2009
© 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
3
Next Steps: USA.gov Discusses Plans for Expansion Of Cloud Resources
Moving forward, GSA has a few ideas in the works for further using the Terremark Enterprise
Cloud. These ideas include:
·Connecting the customer’s cloud pool directly to dedicated resources. By leveraging
Terremark’s network architecture and GSA’s added security, the agency plans to link IaaS
and traditionally deployed applications. The service provider expects to bridge the two
environments via secure, low latency VLAN links. This will let GSA place resources in either
environment based on cost efficiency, architectural constraints, or other reasons.
·Automating on-demand expansion of storage capacity. GSA is also considering moving Data.
gov to the same cloud platform sometime in the next year. Data.gov is a public warehouse of all
data feeds the government makes available to citizens (see Figure 1). Moving this Web site to
an IaaS cloud service would let users access data for building mashups or integrating with other
Web sites. If GSA decided to make this switch, it would be cutting-edge in the cloud world.
·Exposing infrastructure APIs. Exposing APIs to USA.gov would let users build mashups of its
content and access data programmatically — allowing them to access the information without
going through the Web site. The GSA team has yet to determine whether this will be a next step
for them. They’re discussing whether it’s beneficial to keep customers accessing through the
Web interface or if the team should move forward with exposing the infrastructure APIs instead.
September 25, 2009
© 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
4
Figure 1 Data.gov May Be The Next Government Web Site To Move To The Cloud
55227
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
ENDNOTES
1
In June 2009, the Brookings Institution named USA.gov the No. 1 federal government Web site, and Web100.com has
rated it No. 48 in its “Top 100 Websites” — above AOL, NPR, Fandango, MSNBC, and Yelp. Source: USA.gov (http://
www.usa.gov/About/Awards.shtml).
2
The data center campus in Culpeper, Va. needs to meet a number of on-premises security requirements. Some measures
that Terremark has taken include: 250 motion sensor cameras, Department of Defense-approved fences, and blast-proof
exteriors. Source: J. Nicholas Hoover, “Inside Terremark’s Secure Government Data Center,” InformationWeek, July 28,
2009 (http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218700118).
3
Martha Dorris, acting deputy associate administrator for the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Office of
Citizen Services and Communications, said the move will cut the portal’s infrastructure costs by as much as 90% and
improve its capabilities. Source: Steve Towns, “Federal Web Portal Moves to Cloud Computing Platform,” Government
Technology, May 1, 2009 (http://www.govtech.com/gt/654240).
Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business
and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and
peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For
more information, visit www.forrester.com.
© 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions
reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are
trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. To purchase reprints of this document, please email
[email protected]. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com.
55227
Customer
Case Study
Club Med Takes a Vacation from
Downtime Worries
Executive Summary
Business Challenge
Company
• Implement a business continuity strategy
• Optimize Internet connectivity for North American
operations
• Create ability to access applications remotely in the
event of a disaster
CLUB MÉDITERRANÉE
Resort Vacations
Paris, France
www.clubmed.com
Terremark Solutions:
Terremark Facility Services
Business Results
• Ensured 100-percent power availability and simplified operations
• Gained many more capabilities for less than previous connectivity costs
• Found new business flexibility
Quote:
“While our first priority was to ensure disaster recovery, Terremark enabled us to gain hosting services, massive
worldwide connectivity, better performance, scalability, and unmatched protection — for less than we had been
paying for connectivity alone.”
— Stephane Magnat, IT Director for Club Med North American Zone
“Now if there is any natural disaster, all we have to do is turn off the lights and walk out because everything is
secure at Terremark. We can access our systems remotely through a VPN or relocate to a temporary office — a new
cross-connect gets us up and running quickly.”
— Jorge Lopez, Technical Support Manager for Club Med North America
Customer
Case Study
Seeking a Permanent Vacation from Disaster Worries
What’s the perfect vacation? It might be swinging upside-down from a flying trapeze. Snorkeling above a school of tropical
fish. Or letting the kids enjoy award-winning activities while you relax on a white sugar-sand beach. For a refined, generous,
personalized vacation experience, more than 1.4 million guests visit one of 80 Club Méditerranée (Club Med) resorts around
the world every year.
Headquartered in Paris, France, Club Med’s North American operations are located in Coral Gables, Florida. Here, the IT
organization supports an office in Mexico City; call centers in Scottsdale, Arizona and Montreal, Canada; and the Club Med
villages Sandpiper (Florida), Cancun and Ixtapa (Mexico), Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), La Caravelle (Guadaloupe),
Buccaneer’s Creek (Martinique), Columbus Isle (Bahamas), and Turkoise (Turks & Caicos).
Until recently, applications and Internet connections were hosted and managed through Paris headquarters, while local Internet
service providers delivered access and voice services for each village. As operations became increasingly interrelated and
critical, high Internet traffic volumes slowed performance for Web-based applications. Routine after-hours system maintenance
performed in Paris shut down operations in the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean during peak time periods. System backups
were performed locally and shipped out to other locations when needed, extending downtime. In 2005, Hurricane Wilma
placed Club Med’s business continuity and disaster recovery strategies on the fast track.
“After Wilma hit Florida, the Coral Gables office was down for ten days while local power blocks were restored,” said Jorge
Lopez, technical support manager for Club Med North America. “Because all of the circuits terminated in our offices, the
resorts were down as well. Call centers in Scottsdale and Montreal could take phone calls, but agents could not access the
applications they needed to process reservations.” Having to manually process each reservation reduced the number of
customers served by 75 to 80 percent.
With so much at stake, the company began investigating options for reducing downtime in the event of a disaster, securing and
backing up data offsite, and creating redundancy. After evaluating several possibilities, Club Med chose Terremark and its NAP
of the Americas.® The NAP of the Americas® is a fortress-style facility that provides state-of-the-art security and guaranteed
availability for peering, managed, and dedicated hosting services. World-leading carriers, Internet service providers, and
content providers are housed at the NAP of the Americas,® enabling customers to take advantage of massive, carrier-neutral
connectivity for extending their reach anywhere in the world. And the NAP facility itself is designed and built to withstand a
Category 5 hurricane.
“Terremark allowed us to transition our data center in phases,” said Mr. Lopez. “The NAP team was extraordinarily helpful in
helping us ensure a smooth transition. The entire move was completed in a relatively short amount of time.”
An All-Inclusive Solution
Today the Coral Gables offices, Turkoise, and Columbus Isle are connected directly to the NAP, while Sandpiper, Caribbean
and Mexican villages, and call centers are connected over an MPLS network. An additional new circuit provides dial-up
capabilities for accessing applications remotely in the event of a disaster. Club Med takes advantage of Terremark’s peering
and dedicated hosting services, with access to backup-and-restore services if needed.
“While our first priority was to ensure disaster recovery, Terremark enabled us to gain hosting services, massive worldwide
connectivity, better performance, scalability, and unmatched protection — for less than we had been paying for connectivity
alone,” said Stephane Magnat, IT director for Club Med’s North American zone.
All of Club Med’s carriers and main connections reside at the NAP of the Americas,® including Cable & Wireless, France
Telecom, Nexogy, Global Crossing, and others. Because equipment is housed at the NAP of the Americas,® the company also
eliminated security risks from possible break-ins. Mr. Lopez can monitor operations remotely, deploy new circuits, or make
changes with a phone call.
“Now if there is a natural disaster, all we have to do is turn off the lights and walk out because everything is secure at
Terremark,” said Mr. Lopez. “We can access our systems remotely through a VPN or relocate to a temporary office — a new
cross-connect gets us up and running quickly.”
Generous Coverage
The Terremark solution also quadrupled Club Med’s local Internet circuit, so now the company has the bandwidth to ensure
full redundancy between Coral Gables and Paris. Internet-based application performance has dramatically improved, giving
Mr. Magnat the ability to outsource several local applications, such as payroll processing, and eliminate the burden of
managing and supporting those servers and databases.
The Terremark solution provides Club Med executives with new peace of mind as well. Business changes quickly, but with
everything at the NAP of the Americas,® the company has the flexibility to easily move people and locations without having
to move its entire infrastructure.
Customer
Case Study
Next Steps
Through the NAP of the Americas,® Club Med is able to take advantage of promising new technologies and vendors. A voice
over IP (VoIP) project is testing the company’s plan to deliver voice calls between Coral Gables and Paris over the network.
“Instead of having to negotiate a separate agreement with a long-distance carrier, we can easily set up calls over the network,”
said Mr. Magnat. “Running a high percentage of these calls through the NAP would save significant international calling costs.”
Using VoIP, Club Med could also reduce the cost of calls between Mexican and Caribbean villages and the U.S. mainland,
enabling guests to take advantage of reasonably priced calls to phone home.
Club Med is also planning to virtualize its call centers to automatically re-route calls when one call center is overloaded. Instead
of having to hire more agents to handle calls during peak periods, Club Med can optimize the resources it already has, ensure
good service, and increase its business.
“It’s more than just the connectivity and network,” said Mr. Lopez. “As we move forward and expand our presence, Terremark
is extremely helpful in identifying excellent technology providers in the NAP who can help us achieve our goals.”
About Terremark
Terremark Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:TMRK) is a leading global provider of IT infrastructure services
delivered on the industry’s most robust and advanced operations platform. Leveraging datacenters in
the United States, Europe and Latin America and access to massive and diverse network connectivity,
Terremark delivers government and enterprise customers a comprehensive suite of managed solutions
including hosting, colocation, connectivity and security services. Terremark’s acclaimed Infinistructure™
utility computing architecture has redefined industry standards for scalable and flexible computing
infrastructure and its DigitalOps® service platform combines end-to-end systems management workflow
with a comprehensive customer portal. More information about Terremark Worldwide can be found at http://
www.terremark.com.
CA S E ST U DY
Agora Games Changes the Gaming Playing Field
with Terremark’s Enterprise Cloud
Brian Corrigan
Chief Technology Officer
Aspiring living-room rock stars or players soldiering through a battlefield can join millions of others online in their
quests, thanks to Agora Games. The company develops video game middleware and creates custom online gaming
communities. Award-winning games such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty include technology from Agora Games that
allows players to track their scores, meet other game enthusiasts, and compete with players around the world. For
game developers and publishers, Agora provides in-game data capture and analytics that deliver valuable game-play
information for improving the game, the community, and future games.
Each game’s website is closely integrated with the game itself. Players can go to the game’s site, view what they just
played and share it with their friends. As a result, site performance is critical to the game’s success. Slow performance
or features that don’t work correctly can result in players leaving in favor of other publishers’ games.
In the past, Agora Games leased servers for testing and hosting game sites and had to constantly monitor servers,
troubleshoot hardware issues, and reinstall applications or data if a hard drive failed or became corrupted. Managing
physical servers for testing and production use was complex. Ideally, the team would test a game on the same
hardware that would be used for production. However, they had to continually reallocate servers between testing and
production environments, cleaning up the testing servers and reconfiguring them to make them production-ready.
Even more difficult was preparation for the launch of a new game. If the game exceeded expectations, server
capacity was strained, affecting performance and players’ adoption of the game. However, adding servers to improve
performance could take several days and for game publishers, several days of sub-optimum performance increased the
risk that players would drop the game. Agora Games would have to call the hosting provider for assistance in adding
servers, reconfiguring the network, upgrading hardware, or removing extra servers.
When new games do not generate the expected traffic, servers that are not used sit idle, which is costly. In addition,
most games have peak usage when they are launched, after which traffic volumes sharply decrease and server capacity
that was needed at launch sits idle later.
Because Agora Games’ technology delivers game-play data to the site, the company must also pull high volumes of
data over the Internet to a game’s web site – quickly and securely. Game-play data analytics demand high network
capacity and massive connectivity.
“Building the type of datacenter that we need is very expensive,” said Brian Corrigan, Agora’s chief technology officer.
“Yet, we need to ensure extremely high levels of uptime and responsiveness for our customers and their players. We
don’t want to have to manage hardware, but we do need control over the systems. That’s why we began looking for a
virtualized solution.”
AGOR A G A M E S
A CLOUD-BASED SOLUTION
Corrigan and his team evaluated several providers of cloud-based services, but none of the solutions adequately met
Agora’s three critical requirements. First, Agora needed a service that supported both Ubuntu Linux and Microsoft
Windows platforms. The Microsoft Xbox is one of the leading game consoles, and Agora needed to be able to work
with Windows-based platforms. Second, high uptime is critical to systems supporting online gaming, but not all
services guaranteed system uptime. After having to monitor servers and replace hard drives in their leased systems,
Agora preferred to leave hardware management to a service provider. Finally, the company wanted superior support. If
it became necessary to pick up a phone and call for assistance, Agora wanted to ensure that the provider was ready to
help.
“We called Terremark and immediately received great support from the sales team,” said Corrigan. “When we started
asking highly technical questions, they put a sales engineer on the phone. We threw every question we could think of
at her, and she answered all of them. She was terrific.”
The solution that Terremark recommended is The Enterprise Cloud™, which allows precise, dynamic allocation of
computing resources when and where they’re needed. The Enterprise Cloud resides in Terremark’s global footprint of
world-class top-tier datacenters, providing the highest standards of security, availability and power. The solution’s grid
architecture provides complete physical redundancy to eliminate any downtime due to hardware failure. The system
can even move applications across physical devices dynamically – without service interruption – while automated
resource balancing provides continuous monitoring and optimization to ensure peak performance.
The Enterprise Cloud is based on Terremark’s proven Infinistructure™ utility computing platform, massive and diverse
network connectivity, and top-tier technology from world-class infrastructure partners such as HP, IBM, VMware
and Cisco. Its powerful Infinicenter web portal enables Enterprise Cloud customers to dynamically provision servers
from pre-allocated resource pools of dedicated memory, processing and storage. In minutes, Agora can configure
and provision a virtual server, organize its servers according to role, and dynamically extend them based on how they
needed to be used. An available burst mode provides an automated, cost-effective way for Agora to deal with spikes
in demand.
Agora Games deployed a test system with Terremark’s help. As Agora became more familiar with the differences
between managing virtual servers and managing physical servers, Terremark was there to answer questions and
provide immediate assistance.
“We hammered the test system hard, and we were impressed with the results,” said Corrigan. “When comparing
results from similar systems in our old environment, we found performance gains across the board.”
UNMATCHED CONTROL AND FLEXIBILITY
The Enterprise Cloud gives Agora complete control over its systems without having to manage hardware and
provisioning. Through the Infinicenter web portal, Agora can easily configure servers for testing or production in just
minutes.
“We can set up an exact copy of the planned production system for testing prior to live deployment,” explained
Corrigan. When we’re done with our testing, we simply delete the test system and recover the resources in use – all
without picking up the phone.”
Now Agora does not have to purchase or lease more servers than they actually need, and they can scale the number
of servers used up or down on demand. When a new game is introduced at Christmas, Agora can deploy additional
servers to handle the peak load and scale back as usage normalizes over time. They no longer have to pay for capacity
that isn’t fully utilized. When servers are turned down as demand scales back, resources can be retired back into the
cloud or reallocated elsewhere, enabling Agora to respond in real-time to their business needs.
AGOR A G A M E S
MASSIVE CONNECTIVITY FOR EXTENDED REACH
Agora’s previous provider offered connectivity to multiple Internet points of presence, but Terremark offers plug-and-play
bandwidth from more than 160 global carriers. This massive connectivity will eventually allow Agora to establish servers in
countries outside of the U.S. in order to meet privacy requirements for users in other countries.
“Because Terremark is a much larger company, we get additional benefits that don’t cost extra,” said Corrigan. “Its easy to set
up servers in different locations worldwide in order to meet the privacy of different customers” In addition, Agora has access to
a closed, private network of servers behind a virtual firewall, for added security in comparison to its servers residing directly on
the Internet, which was the case with their previous provider.
SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE FOR PULLING DATA
With network-level integration across the country, there are minimal hops required for transporting data, which significantly
improves data collection performance. Previously, high volumes of data had to go through multiple hops from users’ ISPs to
reach the game web site. The Agora team was concerned about performance, because immediate access to game data is
a critical factor in game players’ satisfaction with their gaming experience. The Enterprise Cloud’s nodes reside in a global
footprint of carrier-neutral datacenters, which allows Agora access to more than 160 global carriers.
“We just assumed that this would be a problem, and when we actually did the testing it turned out there was no problem at all,”
laughed Corrigan. “We received much higher performance from the Terremark’s NAP of the Americas in Miami than from the
local datacenter. We all just scratched our heads and said ‘hmm, that was easy’.”
HIGHLY RESPONSIVE SERVICE
Agora has been impressed with the support it receives from Terremark as well. The Terremark team has been extremely
accommodating to Agora’s requests and made adjustments to the virtual environment, power management, and other
features.
“We haven’t been a customer for very long, but Terremark has addressed many of the items that we have asked to be
integrated,” said Corrigan. “That is really important. We even named a server after one of the Terremark technical engineers.”
AND IT IS ALL COST-EFFECTIVE
With The Enterprise Cloud, Agora has gained more powerful hardware resources and higher performance than it could have
achieved by building its own environment. The company only pays for what it uses and at the same time, can focus its internal
resources on its own business – building gaming environments.
“If we didn’t have Terremark, I would have budgeted for round the clock hardware support this year,” said Corrigan. “We are
excited about leveraging our Terremark capabilities to involve new game developers, studios, and publishers in our new Hydra
product. Terremark will greatly simplify building and running that product, and it will help us be much more price-competitive.”
THE STRENGTH OF COMPLEMENTARY RELATIONSHIPS
Agora also appreciates Terremark’s relationships with a wide range of Internet services companies. For example, content
delivery services, such as Akamai and Limelight, also reside in the NAP of the Americas datacenter in Miami, which makes it
easy for Agora to quickly connect with complementary services if necessary.
“If one of our games goes viral, it is much more cost-effective to outsource specific video or music delivery capabilities,” said
Corrigan. “Now, Terremark handles that connectivity and make sure that it works. We just get to use it.”
AGOR A G A M E S
NEXT STEPS
Agora plans to transition the rest of its existing products to Terremark to virtually eliminate the need to manage hardware from
now on. This frees the company to focus entirely on delivering top-tier services to its customers and gaming innovation.
“Our biggest competitive advantage is that we don’t run a datacenter,” said Corrigan. “We thinks it’s fun when the competition
says that it has a 7000 square-foot datacenter – and we can say that we have a 750,000 square foot datacenter. Now we can
focus on new toys, instead of keeping servers running. Which is always a lot more fun.”
terremark.com
TMRK_AGORA/042009
Executive Summary and Response to Section
3.6.2 B
Prepared by DSI and DFISS ISS Teams
3.6.2.B – Unified Security
Last Update: January 23rd, 2012
January 31, 2012
2
Table of Contents
1 Overview.................................................................................................................... 4 2 Option 1 – Stand Alone Surveillint Systems .......................................................... 8 3 Option 2 – Centralized Surveillint System.............................................................. 9 Request for Proposal (RFP): 269-2011-065
January 31, 2012
3
1 Overview
DISYS Solutions, Inc. (“DSI”), in partnership with DSI Physical Security Eco-System
Alliance member Delex Fairfax (“DFISS”), is pleased to deliver to CCPA, a world-class
blue-print, for its Unified Security Solutions requirement. The uniqueness of this solution
is that it will deliver to CCPA, a DHS Safety Act Certified design; as well as one
compliant with both the DHS NIPP Reference Architecture, as well as the US
Department of Justice’s recommendations for a FUSION Center, Command and Control
framework. The world’s leading security experts are in full agreement that what makes a
Unified Security Solution, “Unified”, is absolutely its ability to: Process and receive alerts
from the entire security eco-system, both Physical (i.e., “PSIM”) and Cyber (i.e., “SIEM”)
irrespective of vendor brand; and to able to view this 360 degree Situational Awareness,
from a Single Management Platform, and execute actionable intelligence and countermeasures from that same single platform.
DSI is proud to propose to CCPA, a best in class Unified Security Solution consisting of
best-of-breed products for each Unified Security Solution category in Section 3.6.2 B:
B. Unified Security Capabilities
•
•
•
Physical Security
 Video Surveillance;
 Access Control;
 Fire / Smoke Alarm;
 Intrusion Detection; and
 Video Analytics.
Asset Management
 RFID;
 Inventory management; and
 Asset tagging.
IT Security
 Endpoint;
 Information Assurance;
 Network;
 Storage; and
 Identity Management.
With the critical addition of the “Unifying” element, for all of the above solutions – the
world’s leading Situational Awareness and Incident Management (PISM & SIEM)
platform – Proximex SURVEILLINT, or the Cisco OEM version, known as Cisco PSOM.
The provided solution is globally unique, inclusive of Patents, and best-in-class features
and functionality; and optimized for both Network-Centric and Cloud Based deployment.
January 31, 2012
4
The following are the Unified Security Management Platform’s key differentiators:

Best-in-Class Scalability - As a service-oriented architecture (SOA), the
platform can scale to support thousands of sensors and can flexibly support
any type of security system. The solution has ability to scale both vertically
(numbers of sensors managed) and horizontally (number of technologies
integrated into it). A recently conducted scalability and availability testing has
shown impressive results for a similar solution that is proposed: each low-end
Surveillint/ Cisco PSOM server can support over 200 simultaneous client
consoles, over 25,000 sensors, and over 1,000 alerts per second – more
than adequate for even the most demanding environments. For
environments that require more than this, additional servers can be added or
the specifications for the server could be enhanced.

Best-in-Class, High availability and failover capabilities - More servers
can be added for additional capacity to support the largest environments.
What’s more, failover occurred within seconds using failover technologies
provided by Microsoft and NEC. Failover and high availability can also be
achieved using NEC fault tolerant solutions, Microsoft SQL Server replication,
Microsoft Network Load Balancing and Microsoft Cluster technologies.

Business Logic Designer – through Visio-friendly drag & drop, visually
create automated actions and decisions to deliver counter-measures across
all supported security platforms – Video, Fire, Life-Safety, IDS, BMS, Radar,
Fencing, other.

EZ-Track – video pursuit across cameras, and cameras from different
vendors (Patent Awarded)

Investigate Users – Investigate and trace users across multiple access
control systems and platforms

Trend Reporting – proactively report on statistical trends across multiple
security systems and platforms
January 31, 2012
5

Open, Standards Based SDK – The only solution in the Physical Security
Management and Incident Management space that offers a fully documented,
open web services SDK that can be leveraged to integrate additional
systems. It provides a standard way to send information to different systems
such as communications systems, Computer Aided Dispatch, notification
systems, etc. or a standard way to receive alarm/alert information and
associated details (such as tracking information or additional metadata).

3rd Party Physical Security Platforms – Integration Modules – the
solutions has built the industry’s most extensive library of integrations with
security systems – more than 150+ system integrations in all and
continues to add 5-10 integrations per quarter. These integrations
include:
o Video Management Systems
o Access Control Systems
o Fire Alarm Monitoring Systems
o Intrusion Alarm Systems
o Intelligent Video Systems
o Intercom Systems
o Computer-Aided Dispatch Systems
o Mass Notification Systems
o RADAR Systems
o Chemical/Biological Sensors and Detection sensors
o IT Systems supporting SNMP, WMI, Syslog, etc.
o Building Management Systems
In addition to the large breadth of integrations, the solution also provides the
deepest level of integrations compared to other PSIM Platform. The solution
provides bi-directional capabilities to synchronize alert status between
systems (alert updates in each system are kept in synch), control doors,
move cameras, provide door activity, display badge IDs, and investigate/trace
specific card holders. .
In summary, the solution presented is designed, from the ground up, to support ALL
3rd PARTY security systems, Video, Fire, Life-Safety, IDS, BMS, Radar, Fencing,
and many others to provide the best situational awareness experience in a complex
Command & Control environment.
For CCPA agencies and constituents, the system will be used to provide integration
between the multiple security systems deployed – whether legacy or new – and either, at
a single site, or across multiple buildings, sites and campuses.
Figure 1 – High Level View of a Enterprise Wide CCPA Unified Security Solution
< NEXT PAGE >
January 31, 2012
6
Disys Solutions Unified Security Command and Control Architecture – One-Click, One-View - all Security Events
CCPA Eco-System Clients
CCPA Legacy & NewSecurity
Systems
CCPA Eco-System Servers
CCTV / NVR / DVR Systems
`
CCPA Eco-system Administrator
Workstation(s)
Camera Control Systems
CCPA Eco-System C3 Central
(Web Services, Knowledge Server,
Monitoring Server, Database)
Can run independently or can be
redundant across geographically
dispersed CCPA eco-system SOCs
TCP/IP
Cisco or other
VSM
PACS / SMS Systems
Cisco or PAM/
PACS
TCP/IP
PRIVATE, PUBLIC
OR HYBRID CLOUD
Intelligent Video Systems
CCPA Eco-system Operator
Workstation(s)
and Video Walls
TCP/IP
Alarm/ Fire & Life Safety
PDA
SONAR Systems
Wi-Fi/
Cellular
CCPA/ NC First
Responders
RADAR Systems
Radio
IP Radio System
IP Intercom System
Flexible, Intuitive Workflow
Implement Industry, Policy and Internal
Best Practices quickly through simple UI.
Define notifications, automated actions,
escalations, operator instructions.
Visitor, Personnel, and
other Identity Systems
Intercom
Cell Phone
Phone
VoIP Telephone System
Cisco IPICS,
VoIP
BMS / EMS Systems
PIDS Systems
Communication Systems
This document describes two options for deploying a Unified Security Solution within
CCPA agencies and institutions. Option 1 is for standalone systems to be deployed at
each building providing incident management capabilities for that building. Option 2 is
for a centralized Surveillint/ Cisco PSOM deployment for a multi-site CCPA agency
deployment, providing a centralized view of security incidents across the entire network
while allowing security operators in each building or site to have incident management
capabilities for their building only. Each option is schematically depicted below.
January 31, 2012
7
2 Option 1 – Standalone/ Single-Site or Per Building Integrated
Security System Example
For Each CCPA Agency
Building – Video &
PACS Examples
Unified Security
Operator’s Console
Alert/Environmental Data to/from Surveillint/ PSOM System
Live/recorded video is pulled directly from local Media Server
C
Centralized Unified
Security Management
Console
Camera(s)
Media Server(s)., i.e., Cisco, Dvtel, etc
CardKey System. i.e., JCI, Hirsch, etc.
Events to Centralized Management Console; and to CardKey Server
Controlled Doors/Sensors
January 31, 2012
8
3 Option 2 – Campus-Wide or Multi-Site Deployment
January 31, 2012
9
Services Pricing
Labor Categories
List Price
CCPA
Price - Per hour
$180
$150
Project Manager
Qualifications: Five (5) years experience performing tasks focused on leadership and/or
Functional Responsibility: Manages the execution of single projects of simple to complex. Hold Overall
responsibility for customer satisfaction, scheduling for a project as specified
Education: Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent (e.g. 8 years experience) in Electrical Engineering
Sr. Systems Engineer
$225
$175
Qualifications: Twelve (12) years of mechanical, electrical engineering experience or Ten (10) years
Functional Responsibility: Integrates project/program-engineering efforts across disciplines including
software and hardware. Derives project/program requirements through analysis of clients
Education: Master’s Degree or equivalent (e.g. Bachelor’s Degree + 4 years experience or 12)
Jr. Systems Engineer
$150
$125
Qualifications: Seven (7) years of electrical engineering, information systems engineering
Functional Responsibility: Integrates project/program-engineering efforts across disciplines including
software and hardware. Derives project/program requirements through analysis of clients
Education: Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent (e.g. 8 years experience) in Electrical Engineering
Sr. Technician
$150
$125
Qualifications: At least Eight (8) years of experience of which at least four (4) years must be
Functional Responsibility: Organizes and directs electronic installations and performs site surveys, assesses
and documents current site network configuration and client requirements
Education: Suitable training and/or experience as applicable to ensure the individual is fully versed and
capable of executing his/her tasks within acceptable workmanship standards and industry
conventions comparable to an Associate’s Degree
Jr. Technician
$120
$100
Qualifications: At least Four (4) years of experience and two (2) years specialized experience
Functional Responsibility: Assists in site surveys, assesses and documents current site network
configuration and client requirements. Configures computer work stations, communication
Education: Suitable training and/or experience as applicable to ensure the individual is fully versed and
capable of executing his/her tasks within acceptable workmanship standards and industry
conventions comparable to an Associate’s Degree
Training Specialist
$100
$80
Qualifications: At least Two (2) years of experience related to professional training
Functional Responsibility: Prepares and delivers training, training plans and training materials (e.g. course
materials and/or instructor guidelines, etc.) to client, instructors and other interested parties
Education: B.A./B.S. or equivalent (e.g. 4 years experience) in a related or technical field
January 31, 2012
10
3.6.2.C – Unified Communications
SAMPLE STATEMENT
OF WORK FOR A
UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
SYSTEM
January 31, 2012
1
VII.
STATEMENT OF NEEDS:
Virginia Tech requires a contractor to provide a unified communications system including all ancillary
services, products, and support required for implementation, operation, and maintenance, in order to
support the voice, messaging, and collaboration requirements of the university.
A. Proposed solutions shall:
1.
Facilitate compliance with current and future federal, state, and local E911 requirements.
Response:
For the E911 services, DISYS Solutions will partner with RedSky. Our proposed E911 solution
meets or exceeds all current Federal, State and Local government E911 mandates and E911 laws
throughout the USA.
Figure 2. E911 State Map
E911 Manager
Our E911 proposed solutions is RedSky’s E911 Manager. E911 Manager is the most reliable
and scalable E911 solution on the market, automatically capturing location data from your
network of call server/ Unified Communication Manager (UCM) to eliminate the manual
maintenance of an ALI database and deliver significant time and cost savings. E911 Manager is
a centralized server that interfaces with multiple call servers to capture, manage and deliver
location information for traditional and IP endpoints. The diagram below depicts how E911
Manager interfaces with multiple switches across the country and multiple regional ALI database
providers.
January 31, 2012
2
Figure 3. Single Server Enterprise Solution
Our partner, RedSky Technologies, Inc., is a USA based Small Business, headquartered in
Chicago, IL, and has partnerships with other leaders in the telecommunications and 9-1-1
industries to help shape 9-1-1 policy, leverage emerging technology, and comply with evolving
regulatory requirements. RedSky is a certified Cisco Technology Partner and offers the only
premise based E911 solution that is certified to run on all three of these leading
telecommunication platforms. E911 Manager is certified to integrate with the Cisco’s UCM
Platform. RedSky allows our customers to rest assured that every 911 call will be processed
with the proven 99.999% availability provided by our proposed Cisco Unified Communication
Manager Platform.
In addition to its core functionality, E911 Manager provides a complete audit trail, reports and
notifications to ensure that your ALI data is being properly maintained.
2.
Be designed to deliver calling number information to the appropriate PSAP for E911 calls from
the main campus locations, satellite office locations, and home office locations.
Response:
E911 Manager™ supports location management for digital and analog phones in a variety of
ways, adapting to the particular methods supported by major PBX and call server manufacturers.
Cisco Call Manager (v4.1.3 – 8.0) – ALI records for analog phones are created manually in E911
Manager™ and uploaded to LEC ALI databases.
3.
Be designed to deliver calling number information that facilitates access to accurate location
information for E911 calls made from fixed or mobile clients.
January 31, 2012
3
Response:
The E911 Manager delivers accurate location information for all E911 calls from landline or
wireless users. For Cisco Analog telephone instruments RedSky’s E911 Manager solution will
be updated by an internally developed automated process that represents changes in the NI&S
customer database in a NENA (National Emergency Number Association) standard formatted
flat file that will supplement / replace the current Virginia Tech developed ALI database that is
imported nightly by the Virginia Tech owned and managed ALI database. We understand that
the Verizon ALI database is utilized primarily for resolving location information for cellular
callers.
By automating this function for Analog and IP phones, Virginia Tech will save hundreds of FTE
hours by no longer requiring staff to manually update ALI databases. In addition, you can be
assured that every time a phone is moved within your organization the change will be properly
submitted to both the Verizon Regional ALI database and the Virginia Tech owned and managed
ALI database since this process will now be automated and not subject to potential human error.
Our proposed RedSky E911 solution will ensure that Virginia Tech will continue to provide
building name/address, floor and room number to either VTPD dispatchers or local community
PSAPs for all e911 calls regardless of whether they are coming from Analog or IP Telephony
soft or hard phones anywhere within or outside of your enterprise environment. DISYS
Solutions and RedSky will further ensure that e911 calls from the Northern Virginia Center
UCM are dispatched to the PSAP servicing the city of Falls Church, VA and that the local PSAP
in Falls Church has the correct location information for callers in Northern Virginia.
We recommend for the vast majority of Virginia Tech telephone stations that the university
continue to use traditional on-site Virginia Tech Police Department (VTPD) PSAP / Automatic
Location Identification Database approach for E911 location provisioning on campus in
Blacksburg. Using this approach, location records will continue to be automatically updated and
uploaded into the VTPD owned ALI database using an automated database uploading technique
between our proposed E911 Manager and Virginia Tech’s on site PSAP ALI database. For
location records that need to be provisioned for E911 service to Virginia Tech’s facilities in
Northern Virginia, we recommend using E911 Manager in combination with a Verizon provided
PS/ALI gateway account that will allow Virginia Tech to automatically export ALI records from
E911 Manager into the Verizon PS/ALI database that serves PSAP locations in Northern
Virginia where Virginia Tech does business.
Whether E911 calls stay on campus at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg or take place in Northern
Virginia, the local PSAP retrieves ALI records from the ALI DB in a “data dip” when a 911 call
arrives at the PSAP. If the Virginia Tech enterprise ultimately spans beyond more that one
geographical region - beyond Verizon territory - the ILEC PS/ALI database in each region (that
may be provided by a different ILEC - i.e. AT&T, or Qwest) will need to be updated by E911
Manager with separate PS/ALI accounts for each region. If this becomes the case, Virginia Tech
may need to open up a gateway account with each of these ILECs. Regardless of this potentially
happening in the future, the same centralized network based E911 Manager will be capable of
automatically updating each of these individual ILEC ALI DBs throughout the USA.
For remote employees, mobile workers and Windows based softphone users, we recommend that
Virginia Tech deploy our E911 Anywhere Network Service to provision both dynamic ALI
January 31, 2012
4
database provisioning as well as real time call routing of 911 calls to our Nationwide E911
Anywhere Network Service. This service can also be used in place of establishing multiple
PS/ALI accounts as described above. E911 Anywhere Network Service will be explained in
detail later in our proposal.
Figure 4. Proposed E911 Solution
4.
Be designed to facilitate return calls from the PSAP for E911 calls made from fixed or mobile
clients.
Response:
To facilitate return calls from PSAP for E911, we recommend RedSky’s E911 Anywhere. This
is an additional RedSky service that can connect a 911 call to any PSAP in the USA based on the
location of the caller. E911 Anywhere is ideal for those enterprises that use CLEC trunking and
find it difficult to establish a PS/ALI account with the Incumbent E911 Service Provider serving
their region, or have remote offices connected to a centralized call server, as well as those with
remote teleworkers / soft phone users. E911 Manager connects to the E911 Anywhere™ service
using TCP/IP with SSH establishing an authenticated session using a digital certificate.
January 31, 2012
5
Figure 5. Remote Site Solutions
With E911 Anywhere, all 911 calls from any call server in the enterprise are sent as Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP) calls to the E911 Anywhere service. The E911 Anywhere service then
routes the 911 call, along with the caller location, to the correct PSAP anywhere in the USA
based upon the location record of the 911 caller.
Figure 6. E911 Anywhere DataCenter
January 31, 2012
6
911 Call Back
911 call back is defined as the process where a 911 call that was successfully completed to a
PSAP drops and the PSAP attempts to call back on the telephone number designated as the call
back number. In the case where the phone dialing 911 has a DID and the DID is used, the PSAP
simply calls back on the DID to reach the 911 caller.
In the case where the phone dialing 911 does not have a DID and an ELIN was substituted as the
outbound number and the call back number, the PSAP, when calling back on the ELIN, will be
connected to the 911 caller by the call server which caches the extension of the phone that
actually called 911 and routes the incoming call to this phone. This is a programmable function
in the call server software for the Cisco call server platform.
5.
Facilitate compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Payment Card
Industry (PCI) specifications, and all other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
Response:
Our proposed solution is compliant with FERPA, HIPPA, GLBA, PCI and all other current laws
and regulations.
6.
Stipulate specific network, physical space, power, and heat dissipation requirements to enable
Virginia Tech to plan and design the necessary infrastructure upgrades required to support the proposed
solution.
Response:
DISYS Solutions has read and understands the requirement and has provided a tubular list of
Network Equipment including rack space, power and heat dissipation of each of the device. This
is provided as Attachment 1. Quantity of each device in each building/Data Center location is
also indicated. This information is provided for all four solutions proposed in our response.
Virginia Tech may like to choose the best option that meets their operational and financial
requirements.
B. Proposed Solutions should:
1. Provide for four-hour, on-site support for critical system failures.
Response:
DISYS Solutions will provide onsite one dedicated Sr. Voice Engineer to Virginia Tech for one
year. This engineer will be in addition to the installation and support teams. This individual will
provide support in addition to the Cisco SMARTnet offering as stated below.
DISYS Solutions provides on-site support services for critical system failures within four hours.
This support is provided through Cisco’s SMARTnet offering provided in the Bill of Materials
(BOM). Although Cisco will be providing the 4 hour onsite response, DISYS Solutions keeps a
very close eye to make sure that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met by Cisco.
Service Ticketing System
When a call comes into DISYS Solutions, first and foremost a service ticket is opened in our eticketing system. At that time the priority level is assigned in accordance with the customer’s
maintenance agreement and/or problem severity. All calls are forwarded to our technicians or
January 31, 2012
7
manufacturer call center within a maximum of one hour; however most calls are responded to in
less than fifteen minutes. A standard escalation procedure is set for manufacturers such as Cisco
which include information for both DISYS Solutions and Manufacturer Technical and Account
Team contacts.
As shown below the ticket is assigned and progress recorded at every step.
Figure 7. Sample Service Ticket
Handling trouble calls and repairs from the receipt of the trouble report until the trouble is
cleared requires a proven methodology. When a call comes in to the Service Department, or a
Help Desk Ticket is created via the web, a tracking number is issued to the customer. At any
later point, the customer may inquire about the status of a call using their tracking number by
either calling in to our offices or via the web. The following escalation takes place from the time
a ticket is created:
 A case is opened with problem description entered into a problem resolution database,
and assigned to DISYS Solutions Phone Duty technician (Level 3 Expertise, see
definitions below).
 Discuss and set priorities with customer in accordance with DISYS Solutions priority
guidelines (Defined below in the priority level section).
 For in warranty items, DISYS Solutions will co-ordinate with the manufacturer on behalf
of the customer to deliver support conforming to the service level agreements.
 Assign to available Network Engineer, based on type of problem and severity.
 Problem isolation and diagnosis with DISYS Solutions Network Engineer (Level of
Expertise based on type of problem) call back, on-site visit (if necessary).
 Problem escalation to higher level (Defined below in escalation section).
 Test and ensure customer satisfaction regarding fix provided.
 Quality control check performed by customer service representative, to insure highest
level of customer satisfaction after a call is completed.
We have four levels of response times as listed below. Once a service requests is entered into
the Sage CRM, a priority level is assigned, depending on issue.
January 31, 2012
8
Priority 1
Priority 2
Priority 3
Priority 4
prohibits production. These calls must be acknowledged within 15 minutes and resolved
within 2 - 4 hours.
P2 trouble calls are defined as a small-scale system outage affecting some employees
and not the entire department or the enterprise. These calls must be acknowledged
within 30 minutes and resolved within 8 hours. Department heads receive a one level
escalation for trouble calls.
must be acknowledged within 2 working hours and resolved within 2 working days.
P4 trouble calls are defined as scheduled work that needs to be preformed. These calls
must be acknowledged within 8 working hours and resolved within 2 weeks. An example
of a priority 4 call is when DISYS Solutions replaces a broken printer with a loaner printer
and we give the user back the fixed printer when the repair is complete.
Table 1. DISYS Solutions Priority Response Times
Duration Since Call
0 – 15 minutes
1 hour
2 hours
4 - 6 hours
8 hours
24 hours
Personnel Involved in Escalation Notification
DISYS Solutions Phone Duty Technician (Level 1 or 2 Expertise) and
Manufacturer Call Center Service Technician
DISYS Solutions Lead Technician (Level 3 or 4 Expertise) and Manufacturer
Service Manager
DISYS Solutions IT Manager and Manufacturer Operations Manager
DISYS Solutions Director of Operations and Manufacturer Vice President of
Technical Support
DISYS Solutions COO
Virginia Tech Contracting Officer, DISYS Solutions CEO, and Manufacturer
President of Technical Support, and Manufacturer Local Channel Account
Manager
Table 2. Sample Priority Escalation
Escalation List:
Trouble escalation procedures names, titles, and contact information are provided below.
Elapsed
Time
1 hour
2 hours
4 hours
Name
Title
Varun Gulati
Lenu Philip
Vijay Soni
8 hours
Vinu Luthra
Senior Voice Engineer
DISYS Solutions IT Manager
DISYS Solutions Director of
Operations
DISYS Solutions COO
24 hours
Atul Bhatia
DISYS Solutions CEO
Contact
Phone: (888-286-3896)
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Table 3. DISYS Solutions Escalation List
2.
Provide for 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year remote support and allow for
continuing the established self-maintenance model supplemented by a contractual maintenance support
agreement.
January 31, 2012
9
Response:
Cisco SMARTnet offerings provide 24x7x365 remote support. This support is included in our
BOM. The account team is well knowledged in SMARTnet replacement options and will assist
in selecting the different types of hardware replacement options. Post award we will assist
Virginia Tech in accessing Cisco’s TAC center. Although Cisco will be providing the 24x7x365
remote support, DISYS Solutions keeps a very close eye to make sure that Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) are met by Cisco.
3.
Fully support capabilities of a modern, unified communications system; anticipate to the greatest
extent possible future capabilities; and be flexible enough to allow for adaptation to changes in the
technology environment.
Response:
DISYS Solutions understands the requirement of Virginia Tech and is proposing best in class
Unified Communications Solution which unifies voice, video, data, and mobile applications on
fixed and mobile networks, delivering an easy-to-use, media-rich collaboration experience across
your workspaces. These applications use the network as a platform to enable users to collaborate
every time, everywhere, while helping to reduce costs. Cisco periodically upgrades and updates
and incorporates new and advanced features into its product line and Cisco Unified
Communications solution can be upgraded to those new features without any downtime.
In Cisco Unified Communications, you can install upgrade software on your server while the
system continues to operate. Two partitions exist on your system: an active, bootable partition
and an inactive, bootable partition. The system boots up and operates entirely on the partition
that is marked as the active partition.
When you install upgrade software, you install the software on the inactive partition. The system
continues to function normally while you are installing the software. When you are ready, you
activate the inactive partition and reboot the system with the new upgrade software. The current
active partition will then get identified as the inactive partition when the system restarts. The
current software remains in the inactive partition until the next upgrade. Your configuration
information migrates automatically to the upgraded version in the active partition.
If for any reason you decide to back out of the upgrade, you can restart the system to the inactive
partition that contains the older version of the software. However, any configuration changes that
you made since upgrading the software will be lost.
4.
Have levels of performance, reliability, and maintainability consistent with systems used for
commercial communications service delivery.
Response:
DISYS Solutions understands the requirement and is proposing a High Performance and
Redundant Solution based on Cisco Unified Communications Systems version 8.0 on latest high
end UCS C series servers.
January 31, 2012
10
The solution involves 3 UCS C servers each of the two Data Center locations on the main
Campus providing redundancy against the failure of one of the servers or the complete Data
Center. Provided below is the logical diagram of the intended Solution.
Cisco Unified Call Manager or the CCM as mentioned in the figure is the central Call Processing
unit and we are proposing a 7 VM server based solution with a Publisher for dedicated
administrative operations and 6 subscribers with 1:1 redundancy options.
Cisco Unified Connection, also referred to as Unity Connection is the Voice Mail (VM) Server
for providing Unified Voicemail Support. We are proposing one VM server in each of the two
datacenters and will operate in Active/ Active Configuration mode.
Cisco Unified Presence Server also referred to as Unified Presence in the figure below is open
and extensible platform facilitates the highly secure exchange of availability and Instant
Messaging (IM) information between Cisco Unified Communications and other applications. We
are proposing one server in each of the two datacenters location.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (IPCC Express) is the Contact Center Server for
Midmarket Enterprise level solution for sophisticated customer interaction management. We are
proposing one server in each of the two datacenters; one being active and second being failover.
More technical details about each of these products are mentioned in the Technical Capabilities
Section.
January 31, 2012
11
Physical Server with Hosted VMs
CUCM
Publisher
CUCM
Subscriber 5
CUCM
Subscriber 2
CUCM
Subscriber 6
CUCM
Subscriber 1
UCCX
Express 1
CUCM
Subscriber 3
UCCX
Express 2
UCS-C210M1-VCD2
CUCM
Subscriber 4
UCS-C210M1-VCD2
Future
Expansion
VM 1
10,000
VM 2
10,000
VM 3
VM 3
UCS-C210M1-VCD2
UCS-C210M1-VCD2
CUP 4
CUP 1
CUP 2
CUP 3
UCS-C210M1-VCD2
UCS-C210M1-VCD2
DATA CENTER 1
DATA CENTER 2
January 31, 2012
12
OVF Templates for various VM Machines
vCPU
2
RAM
6 GB
vNIC
1
vDISK
vDisk 1 = 80 GB
vDisk 2 = 80 GB
Limit
7500 Users
Cisco Unified Connection 10000 Users (Active/Active
Cluster Configuration)
4
4 GB
1
vDisk 1 = 146 GB
vDisk 2 = 146 GB
10,000 Users
300 ports G.711 or G.729a
70 ports iLBC or G.722
Cisco Unity Connection
5000 User (Active/Active
Cluster Configuration)
2
4 GB
1
vDisk 1 = 200 GB
5000 Users
200 ports G.711 or G.729a
50 ports iLBC or G.722
Cisco Unified Presence
Server - 5000 User
4
4 GB
1
vDisk 1 = 80 GB
vDisk 2 = 80 GB
5000 Users
Cisco Unified Contact
Center Express/IPIVR
2
4 GB
1
vDisk 1 = 146 GB
vDisk 2 = 146 GB
300 Agents
Cisco Unified
Communications Manager

The Call Manager Servers are in 1:1 redundancy and can support a total of 21,000 end points
even in event of failures

Unity Connection servers are being proposed as 2 locations both in active/ active configuration
supporting a max of 15000 Users in event of any failure.

Unified Presence servers are proposed as 2 Clusters with Balanced – Non Redundant High
Availability Deployment, each Cluster can have 2 Servers. If one node fails, the other
node may handle the full load of the additional 50% of users in the subcluster, but may not be
able to sustain this full load at peak traffic
January 31, 2012
13
Unity Connection 1
Unity Connection 2
To P S TN
To P S TN
CCM
CCMP ublisher
Subscriber 4
Subscriber 1
V
Catalyst 3750
V
Subscriber 5
S IP
SERIES
Catalyst 3750
1
1
SYST
RPS
MASTR
STAT
DUPLX
SPEED
STACK
MODE
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
21 22
SYST
R PS
MASTR
STAT
D UPLX
SPEED
STACK
23 24
1X
11X
13X
23X
2X
12X
14X
24X
1
2
3
V oice
Gateway
CCM
V oice
Gateway
CCM
4
MODE
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
21 22
S IP
SERIES
23 24
1X
11X
13X
23X
2X
12X
14X
24X
1
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3
4
S witch
S witch
CCM
CCM
Subscriber 2
Subscriber 6
Catalyst 3750 SE RIES
Cat alyst 3750 S ERIES
1
1
SYST
RPS
MASTR
STAT
DUPLX
SPEED
STACK
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M ASTR
STAT
DUPL X
SPEED
STACK
23 24
13X
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14X
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4
MODE
MO DE
CCM
1X
2X
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3
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15 16
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11X
13X
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12X
14X
24X
1
2
3
4
LAN
LAN
Subscriber 3
VG 224
VG 224
IP CC
IP CC
Analog Gateway
Express2
Analog Gateway
Express1
VG 224
Redundant
VG 224
Analog Gateway
Analog Gateway
VG 224
VG 224
Analog Gateway
Analog Gateway
P resence
Unified
P resence
VG 224
VG 224
Analog Gateway
Analog Gateway
Figure 8. Proposed Solution diagram
5.
Allow full fault, configuration, accounting, performance and accounting management by Virginia
Tech’s operations personnel.
Response:
The proposed solution has multiple set of tools that help identify, troubleshoot faults a few
examples being:
1) Real Time monitoring tool
2) Dial number analyzer
Configurations are primarily done through Interactive Web based interface and also with the help
of scripts and bulk edits, add, delete and imports.
The system has inbuilt CDR Analysis and Reporting interface for Account Management.
System uses Secure HTTP (SSL) for management, and the underlying hardened operating
system requires SSH with limited CLI functionality. The Unified Communications environment
provides role-based authorization to limit configuration access.
More detail about each of these and capabilities of the Unified Communications solutions can be
found in Technical Capabilities Section.
6.
Be designed to allow for fifty percent growth of the initial capacity requirements without replacing
the initial hardware or software investment.
January 31, 2012
14
Response:
The solution has been developed considering 50% growth without replacing the initial hardware
or software investment.
7.
Be able to provide 99.999 percent availability and be designed such that a failure of any single
hardware or software component will not prohibit immediate access to telephony, messaging,
collaboration, or call center applications for more than one percent of the clients configured in the system.
Response:
DISYS Solutions understands the requirement and has designed the solution for providing
redundant solution for the main campus with a brief explanation provided in paragraph 4 (above)
and a detailed explanation in the Technical Capabilities section. For the remote /Satellite offices,
we have proposed Survivable Remote Site Telephony wherein Local Gateway becomes in charge
of the Call Handling activity when it losses connection to the main Campus. When configured in
CME mode, the Local gateways can provide advanced features like Conferencing and Hunt
Groups.
Detailed solution about SRST capabilities of the proposed solution can be found in the Technical
Capabilities section.
The proposed solution provides 99.999% availability.
Logical diagram of a remote Satellite office:
Si
Catalyst 3750
1
SYST
RPS
MASTR
STAT
DUPLX
SPEED
STACK
MODE
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
21 22
SERIES
23 24
1X
11X
13X
23X
2X
12X
14X
24X
1
2
3
4
VG 224
Figure 9. Logical diagram of Remote Satellite office
8.
Include a robust and well-documented application-programming interface (API) to facilitate
access to the system’s call processing, media control, and administrative features.
Response:
January 31, 2012
15
The proposed solution supports several APIs for application developers to extend the feature set
of Cisco Communications Manager, Cisco IPCC Express, and other applications. More details
pertaining to this is provided in the Technical Capabilities section. Cisco provides full support to
the developer community thru Cisco Developer Network and can be accessed online at
“developer.cisco.com”.
9.
Provide Virginia Tech and third party developers with interfaces and support resources to
facilitate the development of communication-enabled business processes, productivity applications, and
system management applications.
Response:
As discussed above the solution has certain API’s and interfaces available to the developers to
develop applications based on the Unified Communication’s Solution.
More details are discussed in the Technical Capabilities section.
10.
Be designed with a robust and well-documented set of fault, configuration, accounting,
performance, and security management capabilities.
Response:
The proposed solution has many multiple set of tools that help identify, troubleshoot faults. A
few examples being:
1. Real Time monitoring tool
2. Dial number analyzer
Configurations are primarily done thru Interactive Web based interface and also with the help
scripts and bulk edits, add, delete and imports
The system has inbuilt CDR Analysis and Reporting interface for Account Management.
System uses Secure HTTP (SSL) for management, and the underlying hardened operating
system requires SSH with limited CLI functionality. The Unified Communications environment
provides role-based authorization to limit configuration access.
More detail about each of these and capabilities of the Unified Communications Solutions can be
found in Technical Capabilities Section.
11.
Include management tools to facilitate the installation, operation, maintenance, and
optimization activities of Virginia Tech’s system administrators.
Response:
As mentioned above, majority of Administration, operation and maintenance on all the Cisco
Unified Communications products is done primarily through a Web Based GUI. System does
however provide a variety of options for Bulk Edit, Add or Delete from the GUI itself.
Optimization can be achieved thru BAT (Bulk Administration Tool) for provisioning end points
and Users using File Import and Exports.
January 31, 2012
16
Apart from this Cisco does have Cisco Unified Operations Manager, which provides a set of
tools for Monitoring and provisioning, this product is not being proposed as a part of the
proposal.
12.
Be designed to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, privacy, continuity, and quality of all voice,
messaging, and collaboration sessions.
Response:
The proposed solution caters to all the requirement:
Integrity, confidentiality and Privacy is achieved at various levels through measures such as:

Use of secure protocols such as sRTP for media traffic, SCCP and Secure SIP for
signaling.

Multilevel Authorization and Authentication. Authentication can be done using LDAP.

Access to system can only be achieved using SSL for command line and https for GUI.

All communication to the external systems are secure.
For Continuity, high availability is proposed in the solution for all the key systems such and Call
Manager and Voice Mail systems. Gateways at remote site are designed to provide fallback
support in case of link failure.
QoS and bandwidth has been taken into account while designing the proposed solution. All the
Gateways and system support standards based DSCP marking and mark the packets with
appropriate value. We have gone through the existing infrastructure at Virginia Tech and made
sure if it is in complaint with the similar QoS characteristics.
13.
Provide an extensive set of security capabilities protecting system components from malicious,
network-based activities.
Response:
The access to the system is protected through a multilevel authorization. An authenticated user
with appropriate privileges can only make changes to the system. The system is based on RedHat
Linux platform with minimal access to the OS. Access to the system is via a Web Interface
which can be accessed using https. More details pertaining to security can be found in Technical
Capabilities section and in document “Virginia Tech Security Questions for Technical
Procurements”.
14.
Be capable of providing access to a robust and well-documented set of telephony, messaging,
desktop video, mobility, collaboration, presence, and call center application features.
Response:
The proposed system meets all of the above mentioned requirements. The detailed capability of
each of these systems is described in detail in the Technical Capabilities section. Additionally,
administration guides and data sheets are included for your review.
15.
Be designed to allow for partitioning the telephony application into groups representative of
individual university departments.
January 31, 2012
17
Response:
Cisco’s Call Manager provides a few different options of partitioning the end points.
Device Pool for example defines sets of common characteristics for devices. End points can be
clubbed under a device pool based on those Characteristics.
Also partitioning can be achieved through Class of Service, which is implemented using Calling
Search Spaces and Partitions. A partition comprises a logical grouping of Directory Numbers
(DNs) and route patterns with similar reachability characteristics. A calling search space
comprises an ordered list of partitions that users can look at before users are allowed to place a
call. When a calling search space is assigned to a device, the list of partitions in the calling
search space comprises only the partitions that the device is allowed to reach. All other DNs that
are in partitions that are not in the device calling search space receive a busy signal.
Partitions and calling search spaces address three specific problems:

Routing by geographical location

Routing by tenant

Routing by class of user.
More Details pertaining to this can be found in Technical Capabilities Section.
16.
Support at least three business-class IP telephone instruments including an economy, advanced,
and executive model.
Response:
DISYS Solutions understands the customer’s requirement and is proposing 3 different models of
telephones:
1) 6921 as economy phones: It’s a two-line IP endpoint supporting light-to-moderate voice
communications, delivered in an intuitive, clutter-free, ergonomic design.
2) 7965 as Advanced: It’s a 6 button phone with high-fidelity wideband audio, new backlit
color displays, and improved navigation options.
3) 9971 as executive: It’s a 12 button high-performance business video and wireless
communications phone.
The detail about each of these phones is described in the Technical Capabilities section.
17.
Support business-class, TDM telephone instruments.
Response:
TDM telephone instruments will continue to be supported with Virginia Tech’s current PBX
Exchange and the new Cisco solution during the migration. However, this support will stop
when Virginia Tech stops using the existing (current) PBX Exchange.
18.
Support wireless LAN telephone instruments.
Response:
January 31, 2012
18
CUCM based system supports wireless based phones from Cisco or any 3rd party service
provider using SIP. For example Cisco’s 7921 and WIP 310 wireless phone are supported by
CUCM.
19.
Support soft client applications for Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
Response:
Cisco Unified Personal Communicator software supports both Windows and Mac Operating
Systems. It provides soft phone presence, instant messaging (IM), voicemail, video, and
multiparty conferencing to effectively communicate and collaborate from anywhere.
20.
Support web client applications for Internet Explorer, Gecko and/or WebKit browsers.
Response:
Cisco Unified Communication’s GUI is supported on the following browsers for Users and
Administrators:
Rel 8.5
•
Internet Explorer
o
IE 8 on WinXP SP3, Win Vista SP2, Win 7
•
Firefox
o
3.x on WinXP SP3, Win Vista SP2, Win 7
o
3.x on Mac OS X
•
Safari
o
4.x on Mac OS X
Rel 8.0(x)
•
Internet Explorer
o
IE 8 on WinXP SP3, Win Vista SP2, Win 7
o
IE 7 on WinXP SP3
•
Firefox
o
3.x on WinXP SP3, Win Vista SP2
o
3.x on Mac OS X
•
Safari
o
4.x on Mac OS X
Rel 7.1(x)
•
Internet Explorer
o
IE 6 & 7 on WinXP SP3, Win Vista SP2
•
Firefox
o
1.5 on all supported platforms (WinXP SP3, Linux)
21.
Support analog devices (e.g., fax machines, modems, elevator phones.)
Response:
The proposed solution supports analog devices like fax machines, modems, elevator phones and
traditional phones using Analog Gateways.
DISYS Solutions understands Virginia Tech’s requirement and provides two different options
pertaining to Analog Gateways.
Here is the feature Comparison of the two options:
January 31, 2012
19
Feature
Port Density
AC Input Voltage
AC Input Current (max)
Power Dissipation
Space Consumed
Cisco 112-FXS Bundle
112
100 to 240 VAC autoranging
7.1 to 3.0Amp
540W
3 RU
Cisco VG 224
24
100 to 240 VAC
1 Amp
60W
1RU
Table 4. Support Analog solutions
22.
Support TDD devices.
Response:
Most of the TDD devices are supported as Analog Devices in CUCM environment and the
proposed solution includes support for Analog Devices.
23.
Be designed with devices or interfaces to enable connectivity to the PSTN.
Response:
The proposed solution meets the requirement of Virginia Tech. We are proposing 2 different
solutions; the first solution use PRI’s and the second solution utilizes SIP Trunks. Both solutions
provide connectivity to PSTN.
24.
Be capable of supporting lawful interception of signaling, accounting, and media as specified by
the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
Response:
Cisco’s architecture supports CALEA.
25.
Be capable of supporting a phased migration of subscribers from the existing legacy system to
the unified communications system.
Response:
DISYS Solutions understands the existing telephony infrastructure and will ensure that there is
minimal service interruption and will ensure the best user experience while migrating to the new
system. The new solution will interact with the old system until the migration is complete. The
CUCM based solution is capable of interacting with the old telephony system using PRI’s or QSIG interface which can be used for passing of Calling Name, Calling Number, and Supervised
Call Transfers to voicemail.
26.
Be capable of supporting bi-directional communication with the Micros Opera property
management system used at the Inn at Virginia Tech.
Response:
Our solution supports bi-directional communication with the Micros Opera property
management system. Our proposals include this integration. Details of the integration are
included in the cd.
27.
Be capable of integrating with Virginia Tech’s Microsoft Active Directory and Open LDAP
enterprise directories.
Response:
The solution is capable of integrating with both Open LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory.
Additional material pertaining to Integration is attached in Attachment 2.
January 31, 2012
20
28.
Be capable of integrating with Virginia Tech’s Microsoft Exchange enterprise messaging system.
Response:
The solution is capable of integrating with Microsoft Exchange using Integrated Messaging via
IMAP or Secure IMAP. Users can read, reply, and forward messages. You can further leverage
the capability of the system using ViewMail for Outlook wherein you can record messages.
Outlook 2007 and above, provides users the ability to review upcoming meetings by phone and
import contacts to be used with personal call transfer rules and voice dialing. Please refer to
Technical Capability section for more details.
29.
Be capable of integrating with standard Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) messaging
systems.
Response:
Yes, the system is capable of integrating with any standard IMAP based messaging system to
access voice mail.
30.
Balance the need to provide employees with a robust set of features and capabilities while
maintaining established service-availability expectations and recognizing the network, power, cable plant,
and environmental infrastructure constraints described in the Current Technology Environment, Section
IV.
Response:
Our proposed solution is a feature rich, scalable and robust solution. We have designed the
solution taking into consideration all the parameters pertaining to high availability and service
continuity. Cisco’s Unified Communications Infrastructure utilizes the existing Network
Infrastructure for communication. Each Cisco phone consists of an inbuilt switch, eliminating
the need for an additional network port for computer, saving on wiring, and also ports on the
switch. This therefore minimizes alterations to the existing cable infrastructure.
The power for operation to the devices is provided using switch 802.3af standards.
The proposed solution hosts most of its servers as virtual machines providing significant cost
savings from both the deployment of multiple physical machines and the power consumed by
equal number of devices. This feature minimizes effect on the existing power infrastructure.
DISYS Solutions is also proposing multiple options to Virginia Tech for analog gateways and
presenting them with significant cost savings. Virginia Tech has an option for selecting a high
density analog gateway C112-FXS which cost more and consumes less space or go for low
power consuming VG224s which are cheaper in cost but provides 24 Analog Connections per
Gateway requiring more space. Virginia Tech can select one of these two options that meet
environmental infrastructure constraints.
The system features have been explained in response 4 and 7 above.
Rack Units, Power and Heat Dissipation Chart
This information is provided in Attachment 1.
31.
Make use of available standard protocols and interfaces when possible.
Response:
January 31, 2012
21
DISYS Solutions understands the concern and has devised a solution with standard protocols.
System as such is capable of supporting any open standard based device such as SIP Phones and
open to integration to several Telephony systems or solution.
32.
Allow for a single point of contact for billing-related account inquiries.
Response:
Yes, our system allows for a single point of contact for billing related inquiries.
33.
Include a comprehensive training program to allow Virginia Tech’s application administrators and
support engineers to assume responsibility for system maintenance.
Response:
Trainings
DISYS Solutions prepares training curriculum that meets the needs for each customer.
Here are a few of the sample training provided by DISYS Solutions.
End User Training
Course Objectives

Learn how to use basic features on Cisco IP phones to place calls, answer calls, transfer
and forward calls

Learn how to use more advanced features which will make you more productive such as
quickly setting up ad-hoc conference calls or forwarding your calls to mobile or home
phones.

Learn how to access voice mail from your Cisco IP phone.

Learn how to use information services now available to you such as missed calls or
accessing the corporate directory.

Learn how to tailor your phone to your needs such as changing ring sound, adjusting the
LCD display, adjusting handset and speaker volume.

Learn how to maximize the use of your IP telephony solution by using your web browser
to forward you calls when outside the offices as well as setting up speed dial numbers
easily.
Course Outline
1. Basic User Features
* Connecting Your Cisco IP Phone to the Corporate Network
* Adjusting the Footstand
* Placing a Call
* Answering a Call
* Ending a Call
* Stabilizing the Handset
January 31, 2012
22
* Transferring a Call
* Putting a Call on Hold
* Redialing a Number
* Using Call Park
2. Advanced User Features
* Forwarding All Calls
* Placing a Conference Call
* Initiating a Meet-Me Conference
* Joining a Meet-Me Conference
* Using Call Pickup
* Using Group Call Pickup
3. Information Features
* Accessing Online Help
* Using Call History
* Changing the LCD Contrast
* Setting Up Voice Mail
* Accessing Voice Mail
* Using a Corporate Directory
* Viewing Information Services
4. Audio Features
* Changing the Ringer Sound
* Adjusting the Ringer Volume
* Adjusting the Handset, Speaker, and Headset Volume
* Muting a Call
5. Web Browser Features
* Forwarding All Calls from the Web
* Configuring Speed Dial Buttons
* Subscribing to Information Services
* Changing Your Subscriptions
6. Using Cisco Personal Communicator
* Preparing To Use Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
* Availability Status and Privacy in Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
January 31, 2012
23
* Having Conversations Using Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
* Using Video With Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
* Using Web Conferencing With Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
* Sending Messages With Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
* Managing Contacts in Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
* Working With Recent Communications With Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
Administrator Training
1. Introduction to Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)
* Telephony and IP Phones
* CUCM Architecture
* Endpoints in CUCM
* Connecting End-User Devices
* CUCM Administration
2. Configuring Users and Phones
* Managing User Accounts in CUCM
* Implementing IP Phones
* Remote Monitoring and Troubleshooting
3. CUCM Dial Plan and Calling Privileges
* Route Patterns
* Calling Privileges and Restrictions
4. Configuring CUCM Applications and Features
* Music on Hold, Annunciator, and Conferencing
* Video Advantage
* User Features and Web Pages
* Call Detail Records and Billing
* Configuring Voice Mail
5. Unity and Unity Connection
* Integration
* General Setup
* Administration
* Subscriber Setup
January 31, 2012
24
o Configuring Global Subscriber Settings
o Configuring Subscriber Accounts and Settings
* Building a Voice Mail Menu and Audiotext Application
o Call and Interview Handlers
Attendant Console Training
Introduction

Logging In

Go Unavailable (F10)

Interface

Menu Bar

Tool Bar

Queues (F9) (for Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console Only)

All Queues (F8)

Active Calls (F7)

Directories

Internal Directory (F3)

External Directory (F4)

Call Progress (F5)

Call Parking Devices Field

Speed Dial Field (F6)

Adding an entry to the Speed Dial Field

Deleting an entry from the Speed Dial Field

Updating an entry in the Speed Dial field

Working in the Fields

Dialing a Number

Finding Contacts in the Directories

Customizing AC

General

Dialing

Call Transfers
January 31, 2012
25

Call Park

Mute

Tones

Display

Internal Directory

External Directory

Field Headers

Secondary Sort

Filter Search

Primary Server (Information only)

Presence

Logging

Using Attendant Console

Answering Calls

Answer Next

Cherry Picking

Alternative Numbers and Presence Status

Transfer Calls

Initiating A Blind Transfer

Blind Transferring to a Known Number

Blind Transferring to a Directory Contact

Initiating a Consult Transfer

Consult Transferring to a Known Number

Consult Transferring to a Directory Contact

Making Calls 10 Make an Internal Call

Making External Calls

Placing Calls on Hold

Retrieving Held Calls

Muting Calls

Call Parking

Retrieving Parked Calls
January 31, 2012
26
VIII.

Conference Calls

Re-establish Calls

Toggle Calls

Reverted Call Control

Call Controls for Reverted Calls

FAC and CMC Settings

Forced Authorization Code (FAC)

Client Matter Code (CMC)

Clearing Calls

Using Emergency Mode

Sending Email

Call Status

Contact Properties

Adding Absent Message and Contact Information 3

Cisco Unified Presence Status
PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION:
A. General Requirements
1.
RFP Response: In order to be considered for selection, Offerors must submit a complete
response to this RFP. One original, five copies and one electronic copy, on either a flash drive or
CD/DVD, of each proposal must be submitted to:
Virginia Tech
Purchasing Department (0333) 270 Southgate Center
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Reference the Opening Date and Hour, and RFP Number in the lower left hand corner of the return
envelope or package.
No other distribution of the proposals shall be made by the Offeror.
Response:
We have submitted the response per the Proposal instructions. We have provided a signed
original document and 5 copies and 1 CD.
2.
Proposal Preparation:
a.
Proposals shall be signed by an authorized representative of the Offeror. All information
requested should be submitted. Failure to submit all information requested may result in Virginia Tech
requiring prompt submission of missing information and/or giving a lowered evaluation of the proposal.
Proposals which are substantially incomplete or lack key information may be rejected by Virginia Tech at
January 31, 2012
27
its discretion. Mandatory requirements are those required by law or regulation or are such that they
cannot be waived and are not subject to negotiation.
Response:
Mr. Vinu Luthra is authorized to sign on behalf of DISYS Solutions, Inc.
b.
Proposals should be prepared simply and economically providing a straightforward, concise
description of capabilities to satisfy the requirements of the RFP. Emphasis should be on completeness
and clarity of content.
Response:
We have provided a clear proposed solution to Virginia Tech.
c.
PROPOSALS SHOULD BE ORGANIZED IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THE REQUIREMENTS
ARE PRESENTED IN THE RFP. All pages of the proposal should be numbered. Each paragraph in the
proposal should reference the paragraph number of the corresponding section of the RFP. It is also
helpful to cite the paragraph number, subletter, and repeat the text of the requirement as it appears in the
RFP. If a response covers more than one page, the paragraph number and subletter should be repeated
at the top of the next page. The proposal should contain a table of contents which cross references the
RFP requirements. Information which the offeror desires to present that does not fall within any of the
requirements of the RFP should be inserted at an appropriate place or be attached at the end of the
proposal and designated as additional material. PROPOSALS THAT ARE NOT ORGANIZED IN THIS
MANNER RISK ELIMINATION FROM CONSIDERATION IF THE EVALUATORS ARE UNABLE TO FIND
WHERE THE RFP REQUIREMENTS ARE SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSED.
Response:
We have read, understand, and have provided a response to each requirement of the RFP.
d.
Each copy of the proposal should be bound in a single volume where practical. All documentation
submitted with the proposal should be bound in that single volume.
Response:
The response is submitted in a single bound volume.
e.
Ownership of all data, material and documentation originated and prepared for Virginia Tech
pursuant to the RFP shall belong exclusively to Virginia Tech and be subject to public inspection in
accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Trade secrets or proprietary information
submitted by an Offeror shall not be subject to public disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of
Information Act. However, to prevent disclosure the Offeror must invoke the protections of Section 2.24342F of the Code of Virginia, in writing, either before or at the time the data or other materials is
submitted. The written request must specifically identify the data or other materials to be protected and
state the reasons why protection is necessary. The proprietary or trade secret material submitted must be
identified by some distinct method such as highlighting or underlining and must indicate only the specific
words, figures, or paragraphs that constitute trade secret or proprietary information. The classification of
an entire proposal document, line item prices and/or total proposal prices as proprietary or trade secrets
is not acceptable and may result in rejection of the proposal.
Response:
We have read, understand, and will comply.
3. Oral Presentation: Offerors who submit a proposal in response to this RFP may be required to give an
oral presentation of their proposal to Virginia Tech. This will provide an opportunity for the Offeror to
clarify or elaborate on the proposal but will in no way change the original proposal. Virginia Tech will
schedule the time and location of these presentations. Oral presentations are an option of Virginia Tech
and may not be conducted. Therefore, proposals should be complete.
January 31, 2012
28
Response:
We have read, understand, and will comply.
B. Specific Requirements
Proposals should be as thorough and detailed as possible so that Virginia Tech may properly evaluate
your capabilities to provide the required services. Provide a comprehensive explanation of how the
proposed solution meets the specified requirements. Utilize reference diagrams, white papers, and
product documentation to supplement the information provided in the response as necessary. Explicitly
identify components of the proposed solution that adhere to established industry standards and protocols.
Explicitly identify components of the proposed solution that utilize proprietary technology instead of
established industry standards or protocols.
Offerors may submit more than one proposal.
Offerors are required to submit the following information/items as a complete proposal utilizing the
following guidelines:
1. Technical Capabilities:
a. Describe the following characteristics of the proposed solution:
i.
Scalability
Response:
In the proposed solution, the dial tone is provided by the handset. When a phone goes off hook, a
Cisco Communications Manager server instructs the phone to play the dial tone. Since this is a
relatively low overhead function, the system has been sized to provide a dial tone to over 10,000
plus endpoints at any one time. Since Communications Manager is never in the direct path of the
voice media and only handles call signaling, the solution can accommodate call signaling for up
to 15,000 endpoints, meeting the need for the system to accommodate growth of up to 50
percent.
In the proposed solution, Cisco is proposing four UCS C-Series platforms. Two of the platforms
will be dedicated to call processing through Cisco Communications Manager. Each platform can
run up to four instances of Cisco Communications Manager and each instance can support up to
7,500 endpoints. The other pair of UCS servers will be dedicated to voicemail, contact center,
and presence applications.
ii.
Availability
Response:
The proposed solution is engineered with multiple levels of redundancy and for geographic 1-to1 call processing redundancy. This protects against both CPU and data center site failure. In the
event that a remote site loses its WAN connectivity, the local gateway router will stand in and
provide local dial tone, phone registration, and PSTN connectivity.
In the event of a call processor failure, all calls handled by that call processor will remain in
progress since the call processor is not in the direct path of the voice media and is only handled
during call setup. If a network failure occurs while the call is in progress on the link that the call
is traversing, then the call will fail.
January 31, 2012
29
The way the proposed solution is engineered, only two circumstances will cause a call to be
disrupted. The first is a complete loss of power to the phone at a specific site. The other is
physical hardware failure and a WAN outage in combination.
iii.
Geographic diversity
Response:
The proposed solution is engineered with multiple levels of redundancy and for geographic 1 to
1 call processing redundancy. This protects against both CPU and data center site failure. In the
event that a remote site loses its WAN connectivity, the local gateway router will stand in and
provide local dial tone, phone registration, and PSTN connectivity.
Cisco is proposing four UCS C-Series Servers: two will be located at the Cassell Coliseum and
other pair will be located at the Information Systems Building. In addition, Cisco is proposing
another pair be located at the Northern Virginia location for purposes of disaster recovery.
iv.
Extensibility
Response:
The Cisco Unified Communications System is a cluster-based solution and can grow by adding
additional servers and Cisco Communications Manager subscribers to the solution. Since the
solution runs on the network, subscribers can be located anywhere there is network connectivity.
This architecture allows the system to grow to 60,000 endpoints per cluster.
The proposed solution has Cisco Communications Manager subscribers running on UCS CSeries hardware. Each UCS platform can support four instances of Cisco Communications
Manager running in a VMWare 4.0 ESXi environment.
b. Describe the API and support resources available to facilitate access to the system’s call processing,
media control, and administrative features.
Response:
The proposed Cisco solution supports several APIs for application developers to extend the
feature set of Cisco Communications Manager, Cisco IPCC Express, and other applications
within the proposed solutions.
Cisco Communications Manager supports the JTAPI or Java Telephony API. Several Cisco
products, specifically Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX) and other third-party
applications leverage this API for monitoring and controlling call routing and call state.
Cisco Communications Manager also supports a SOAP interface call the AXL API. This API
allows developers controlled access to the database layer of Communications Manager. This
allows developers to develop applications that control the configuration of phones, users, dial
plan, and other data contained within Cisco Communications Manager.
Cisco provides an SDK for extending the feature set and for developing applications that run
under the IP phones services window.
Cisco UCCX provides an ACMI interface for developers who want to extend or develop to the
UCCX CTI interface. This API exposes the development layer of the CAD desktop for purposes
of programmatically controlling how the desktop presents itself to users and how it handles calls.
January 31, 2012
30
The UCCX also has a Script Editor application for development of call flows. The existing call
flow object can be modified or new objects can be developed though the use of Java Beans. A
new object can be developed and registered within UCCX for purposes of extending the
capabilities of the Editor.
Cisco provides full documentation and support for application developers through the developer
Web site located at www.developer.cisco.com.
c. Describe the following management characteristics of the proposed solution:
i.
Fault management
ii.
Configuration management
iii.
Accounting management
iv.
Performance management
v.
Security management
Response:
Cisco Unified Communications includes a suite of integrated features and applications to support
fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security management.
At a high level, the following features of Cisco Unified Communications support the FCAPS
model.
Fault Management

Cisco Unified Serviceability, including Real-Time Monitoring Tool.
Configuration Management

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration.
Accounting Management

Call Detail Records and CDR Analysis and Reporting.
Performance Management

Cisco Unified Serviceability, including Real-Time Monitoring Tool, Quality Reporting
Tool, and Cisco Unified Analysis Manager.
Security Management

Cisco Unified Communications uses Secure HTTP (SSL) for management, and the
underlying hardened operating system requires SSH with limited CLI functionality. The
Unified Communications environment provides role-based authorization to limit
configuration access.
The following paragraphs are brief descriptions of the management components included with
Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration is a Web-based tool which provides the
following functionality:
January 31, 2012
31








System Configuration
Call Routing Configuration
Media Resource Configuration
Advanced Features Configuration
Device Configuration
Application Configuration
User Management Configuration
Bulk Administration.
Cisco Unified Serviceability
Cisco Unified Serviceability, an included Web-based troubleshooting tool, provides the











Saves alarms and events for troubleshooting and provides alarm message definitions.
Saves trace information to various log files for troubleshooting.
Monitors real-time behavior of components through the Cisco Unified Real-Time
Monitoring Tool (RTMT).
Generates Cisco Unified Communications Manager reports for Quality of Service, traffic,
and billing information through Cisco Unified Communications Manager CDR Analysis
and Reporting (CAR).
Provides audit capability by logging any configuration changes to the Cisco Unified
Communications Manager system by a user or as a result of the user action. This
functionality supports the Information Assurance feature of Cisco Unified
Communications Manager.
Provides feature services that you can activate, deactivate, and view through the Service
Activation window.
Provides an interface for starting and stopping feature and network services.
Generates and archives daily reports; for example, alert summary or server statistic
reports.
Allows Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection to work as
a managed device for SNMP remote management and troubleshooting.
Monitors the disk usage of the log partition on a server.
Monitors the number of threads and processes in the system; uses cache to enhance the
performance of Cisco Unified Serviceability.
Cisco Unified Communications Operating System Administration
Cisco Unified Communications Operating System Administration, an included Web-based tool,
allows you to configure and manage the Cisco Unified Communications Operating System.
Administration tasks include the following:

Check software and hardware status
 Check and update IP addresses
January 31, 2012
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





Ping other network devices
Manage NTP servers
Upgrade system software and options
Manage server security, including IPSec and certificates
Manage remote support accounts
Restart the system.
Cisco Unified Reporting
Cisco Unified Reporting is accessed from the Cisco Unified Communications Manager console
and generates reports for troubleshooting or inspecting cluster data. This convenient tool
provides a snapshot of cluster data without requiring multiple steps to find the data. The tool
design facilitates gathering data from existing sources, comparing the data, and reporting
irregularities. A report combines data from one or more sources on one or more servers into one
output view. For example, you can view a report that shows the hosts file for all servers in the
cluster. The application gathers information from the publisher server and each subscriber server.
A report provides data for all active cluster nodes that are accessible at the time that the report is
generated.
Disaster Recovery System
The Disaster Recovery System (DRS), which can be invoked from Cisco Unified
Communications Manager Administration, provides full data backup and restore capabilities for
all servers in a Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster. The Disaster Recovery System
allows you to perform regularly scheduled automatic or user-invoked data backups.
The Disaster Recovery System performs a cluster-level backup, which means that it collects
backups for all servers in a Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster to a central location
and archives the backup data to physical storage device.
DRS restores its own settings (backup device settings and schedule settings) as part of the
platform backup/restore. DRS backs up and restores drfDevice.xml and drfSchedule.xml files.
When the server is restored with these files, you do not need to reconfigure DRS backup device
and schedule.
Call Detail Records
When CDR collection is enabled, Cisco Unified Communications Manager writes CDRs to flat
files on the subsequent servers as calls are completed. You can use this information for postprocessing activities such as generating billing records and network analysis.
CDR Analysis and Reporting
CDR Analysis and Reporting (CAR), a Web-based reporting application, generates reports based
on the CDRs and Call Management Records (CMRs) that Cisco Unified Communications
Manager collects. CAR processes the CDR and CMR flat files that the CDR repository service
places in the CDR repository and stores the information in the CAR database. CAR uses the
information to generate reports that provide information regarding voice quality, traffic, and
billing.
Bulk Administration Tool
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The Cisco Unified Communications Manager Bulk Administration Tool (BAT), a Web-based
application, performs bulk transactions to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database.
BAT lets you add, update, or delete a large number of similar phones, users, or ports at the same
time. When you use Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration, each database
transaction requires an individual manual operation, while BAT automates the process and
achieves faster add, update, and delete operations.
Dialed Number Analyzer
Dialed Number Analyzer installs as a feature service along with Cisco Unified Communications
Manager. The tool allows you to test a Cisco Unified Communications Manager dial plan
configuration prior to deploying it. You can also use the tool to analyze dial plans after the dial
plan is deployed.
Because a dial plan can be complex, involving multiple devices, translation patterns, route
patterns, route lists, route groups, calling and called party transformations, and device level
transformations, a dial plan may contain errors. You can use Dialed Number Analyzer to test a
dial plan by providing dialed digits as input. The tool analyzes the dialed digits and shows details
of the calls. You can use these results to diagnose the dial plan, identify problems if any, and
tune the dial plan before it is deployed.
Quality Report Tool
The Quality Report Tool (QRT), a voice-quality and general problem-reporting tool for Cisco
Unified IP Phones, acts as a service that allows users to easily and accurately report audio and
other general problems with their IP phone. QRT automatically loads with the Cisco Unified
Communications Manager installation. As system administrator, you can enable QRT
functionality by creating, configuring, and assigning a softkey template to associate the QRT
softkey on a user IP phone. You can then create, customize, and view phone problem reports by
using the QRT Viewer application.
Real-Time Monitoring Tool
The Cisco Unified Real-Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT), which runs as a client-side application,
uses HTTPS and TCP to monitor system performance, device status, device discovery, CTI
applications, and voice messaging ports. RTMT can connect directly to devices via HTTPS to
troubleshoot system problems.
RTMT allows you to perform the following tasks:






Monitor a set of pre-defined management objects that monitor the health of the system
Generate various alerts, in the form of emails, for objects when values go over/below
user-configured thresholds
Collect and view traces in various default viewers that exist in RTMT
Translate Q931 messages
View syslog messages in SysLog Viewer
Work with performance-monitoring counters.
Cisco Unified Analysis Manager
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34
The Cisco Unified Analysis Manager (Unified Analysis Manager), a tool included with the Cisco
Unified Real-Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT), is used to perform troubleshooting operations.
When the Unified Analysis Manager is launched, it collects troubleshooting information from
your system and provides an analysis of that information. You can use this information to
perform your own troubleshooting operation or to send the information to Cisco Technical
Assistance for analysis.
The Analysis Manager application is installed as an option when you install the RTMT software.
The Analysis Manager interface is accessed from the RTMT main menu and quick launch
channel.
Once it is installed, the application can identify the supported UC products and applications that
you have in your system and troubleshoot call failures across these UC applications, collecting
trace and log files.
The Unified Analysis Manager will support the following products:






Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise
Cisco IOS Voice Gateways
Cisco Unified Presence.
The three primary components of the Unified Analysis Manager interface are the following:

Administration — The system component lets you import device and group configuration
from an external file and provide a status of jobs run by the Unified Analysis Manager.
 Inventory — The inventory component is used to identify all of the devices in your
system that can be accessed and analyzed by the Unified Analysis Manager.
 Tools — The tools component contains all of the functions that Unified Analysis
Manager supports. This includes configuring traces settings, collecting logs, and viewing
configurations.
Roles and User Groups
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration uses roles and user groups to provide
varying levels of privilege (access). This technique permits granting only the required privileges
for a selected group of users and limits the configuration functions that users in a particular user
group can perform.
Roles and user groups provide multiple levels of security to Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Administration and to other applications. The system groups the resources that are
available to Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration and to other applications
into roles. Each application comes with standard, pre-defined roles. Unified Communications
manager includes over 20 pre-defined roles and user groups.
Administrators can configure additional roles for an application. A role contains, for a particular
application, the list of resources that an application comprises. For each resource that a role
January 31, 2012
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comprises, the administrator defines the access privilege. For the Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Administration application, the access privileges include read and update.
d. Describe the security features and capabilities of the proposed solution.
Response:
The Cisco System Internet Operating System (IOS) includes many built-in security controls that
contribute to an architecture that is able to secure voice and data IP networks.







Separate Voice and Data VLANs: Segmentation of devices and traffic at Layer 2 is an
effective method for protecting the voice and data networks. Voice VLANs can be
assigned automatically from the switch to the phone, thus allowing for Layer 2 and Layer
3 separations between voice data and all other data on a network. A voice VLAN also
allows for a different IP addressing scheme because the separate VLAN can have a
separate IP scope at the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server.
Port Security: Port security prevents an attacker from flooding the Content-Addressable
Memory (CAM) table of a switch and from turning any VLAN into a hub that transmits
all received traffic to all ports. It also prevents unapproved extensions of the network by
adding hubs or switches into the network.
DHCP Snooping: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Snooping prevents
unapproved DHCP servers from being on a network. DHCP Snooping prevents any
single device from capturing all the IP addresses in any given scope.
Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Inspection (DAI): DAI prevents an
attacker from running ARP-based attacks in a network to disrupt or sniff the traffic
between people who are adjacent to the attacker at Layer 2.
Quality of Service (QoS): QoS can be used to control not only the priority of the traffic
in the network but also the amount of traffic that can travel through any specific interface.
Cisco Smartports templates have been created to assist in deploying voice QoS in a
network at the access port level. A rigorous QoS policy can control and prevent denialof-service attacks in the network by throttling traffic rates.
Access Control Lists (ACL): ACLs provide the ability to control the network traffic in
and out of a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) as well as the ability to control the
traffic within the VLAN. Cisco switches have the capability of controlling Layers 2 to 4
within a VLAN ACL. Depending on the types of switches in a network, VLAN ACLs
can be used to block traffic into and out of a particular VLAN. They can also be used to
block intra-VLAN traffic to control what happens inside the VLAN between devices.
ACLs at Layer 3 are one of the first opportunities to apply control to voice data and other
non-voice data in the network. This is the perfect location to apply a Layer 3 ACL to
control which areas the devices in each of the VLANs have the ability to access within a
network.
802.1x: Cisco IOS supports Multi-Domain Authentication (MDA), which allows both a
data device and voice device, such as an IP phone (Cisco or non-Cisco), to authenticate
on the same switch port. The port is divided into a data domain and a voice domain.
MDA can use Media Access Control (MAC) authentication bypass as a fallback
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mechanism to allow the switch port to connect to devices that do not support IEEE
802.1x authentication.
Phone Authentication and Encryption
When the security features are properly configured in Unified CM, all supported phones will
have the following capabilities:

Integrity — Does not allow TFTP file manipulation but does allow Transport Layer
Security (TLS) signaling to the phones when enabled.
 Authentication — The image for the phone is authenticated from Unified CM to the
phone and the device (phone) is authenticated to Unified CM. All signaling messages
between the phone and Unified CM are verified as being sent from the authorized device.
 Encryption — For supported devices, signaling and media can be encrypted to prevent
eavesdropping.
 Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) — Is supported to Cisco IOS gateways and,
of course, phone-to-phone. Cisco Unity (the voice messaging system) also supports
SRTP for voicemail.
Signaling and Media Encryption
To maintain the privacy of communications, CUCM provides separate features for protection of
the signaling traffic (TCP or UDP) and the media traffic (RTP).
Security of SIP Trunks
To provide security of SIP trunks, the CUBE terminate and re-originates all calls before they
enter your network. All SIP traffic passes through the SIP stack on the B2BUA twice (on ingress
and egress) so that all malformed packets are dropped.
Phone Security
Cisco Unified IP Phones contain built-in features to increase security on an IP telephony
network. These features can be enabled or disabled on a phone-by-phone basis to increase the
security of an IP telephony deployment. Depending on the placement of the phones, a security
policy will help determine if these features need to be enabled and where they should be enabled.
PC Port on the Phone
The phone has the ability to turn on or turn off the port on the back of the phone, to which a PC
would normally be connected. This feature can be used as a control point to access the network if
that type of control is necessary. Depending on the security policy and placement of the phones,
the PC port on the back of any given phone might have to be disabled. Disabling this port would
prevent a device from plugging into the back of the phone and getting network access through
the phone itself.
Gratuitous ARP
The phones have features to prevent some of the common data attacks that can occur on a
corporate network. One such feature is Gratuitous ARP (Gratuitous Address Resolution Protocol,
or GARP). GARP helps protect the phones from having an attacker capture the signaling and
RTP voice streams from the phone if the attacker was able to get onto the voice segment of the
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network. This feature protects only the phones; it does not protect the rest of the infrastructure
from a GARP attack. This feature is of less importance if you are running a Cisco infrastructure
because the switch port provides features that protect both the phones and the network gear.
Communications Manager and Telephony Applications
All server-based applications run on an “embedded” Linux operating system based on Red Hat
Enterprise Edition. Cisco calls the operating system Voice Operating System (VOS). The Linux
operating systems is closed and does not allow end users root or administrative access. A CLI is
provided, allowing a Communications Manager Administrator to select command sets for
managing upgrades and change to network configuration on the platform. In addition, a Ciscooptimized version of CSA runs on all telephony servers as well as a customized version of the IP
Chains firewall.
e. Download, complete and attach the Virginia Tech Information Technology Security Office’s technology
procurement questionnaire. http://security.vt.edu/Downloads/forms/Security%20QuestionsProcurements%2012-10-09%20rev.pdf
Response:
The completed Virginia Tech Security Questions for Technology-Based Procurements document
has been provided as Additional Material.
f. Describe the following user features of the proposed solution:
i.
Basic telephony
Response:
Cisco Unified Communications Manager system features are listed in Tables 5 and 6.
In addition to these system and user features, the proposed Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing
(CUWL) Standard Edition provides the following features:






Increased reachability with Single Number Reach
Single voice mailbox with Single Number Reach
Mobile Employees with SoftPhone Client (15 – 31 percent increased productivity,
increased employee satisfaction, disaster planning)
Desktop video
Reaching the right people at the right time
Advanced voicemail access.
Table 5. System Capabilities Summary
Alternate Automatic Routing (AAR)
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Analysis Manager: Analysis Manager supports the following products:
 Cisco Unified Communications Manager
 Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition
 Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal
 Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise
 Cisco Unified Contact Center Express
 Cisco IOS Gateway devices and Cisco IOS ACS
 Cisco Unified Expert Advisor
 Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise
Annunciator support for SCCP and SIP
Audio Message-Waiting Indicator (AMWI)
Automated bandwidth selection
Automatic Route Selection (ARS)
AXL Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API with performance and real-time
information
Basic Rate Interface (BRI) endpoint support: Registers BRI endpoints as SCCP devices
Call Admission Control
 Static modeling using locations-based Call Admission Control (CAC)
 Dynamic admission control using RSVP intercluster and intracluster Application ID
for voice and video CAC differentiation
Call coverage
 Forwarding based on internal and external calls
 Forwarding out of a coverage path
 Timer for maximum time in coverage path
 Time of day
Call display restrictions
Call preservation-redundancy and automated failover-on call-processing failure
Call recording for encrypted and non-encrypted calls
Codec support for automated bandwidth selection: G.711 (mu-law and a-law), G.722,
G.722.1, G.723.1, G.728, G.729A/B, Global System for Mobile-Enhanced Full Rate
(GSM-EFR), Global System for Mobile-Full Rate (GSM-FR) Internet Low Bitrate
Codec (iLBC), iSAC, wideband audio (proprietary 16-bit resolution; 16-kHz sampled
audio), and Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) for use with Cisco TelePresence devices
Digit analysis and call treatment (digit-string insertion, deletion, stripping, dial access
codes, digit-string translation, and dial-pattern transformation)
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Database resiliency to increase feature availability for the following:
 Extension Mobility
 Call forward all
 MWI
 Privacy
 Device mobility
 Do not disturb
 End-user and Application User Certificate Authority Proxy Function (CAPF) for
CTI
 Monitoring
 Hunt groups
Device mobility changes in the location-specific information when a device moves
within the cluster
Dial-plan partitioning
Distributed call processing
 Deployment of devices and applications across an IP network
 Virtual clusters of up to eight Cisco Unified Communications Manager servers for
scalability, redundancy, and load balancing
 Maximum of 7500 Cisco Unified IP Phones per Cisco Unified Communications
Manager server and 30,000 per server cluster (configuration dependent)
 Maximum of 100,000 Busy-Hour Call Completions (BHCCs) per Cisco Unified
Communications Manager server and 250,000 per server cluster (configuration
dependent)
 Intercluster scalability to more than 100 sites or clusters through H.323 gatekeeper
 Intracluster feature and management transparency
Divert calls to voicemail (iDivert)
External Call Control, which provides an API (Routing Rules Interface) that allows
routing decisions to be made outside of Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Fax over IP: G.711 pass-through and Cisco Fax Relay
Forced authorization codes and client matter codes (account codes)
H.323 interface to selected devices
H.323 FastStart (inbound and outbound)
Hotline and Private-Line Automated Ringdown (PLAR)
Hunt groups: broadcast; circular; longest idle; and linear, login, and logout
Cisco Intercompany Media Engine support for intercompany business-to-business
communication
Interface-to-H.323 gatekeeper for scalability, CAC, and redundancy
IPv4
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Language support for client-user interfaces (languages specified separately)
Multi-location: Dial-plan partition
Multiple ISDN protocol support
Multiple remote Cisco Unified Communications Manager platform administration and
debug utilities
 Prepackaged alerts, monitor views, and historical reports with RTMT
 Real-time and historical application performance monitoring through operating
system tools and SNMP
 Monitored data-collection service
 Remote terminal service for off-net system monitoring and alerting





Real-time event monitoring and presentation to common syslog
Trace setting and collection utility
Browse to onboard device statistics
Cluster-wide trace-setting tool
Trace collection tool
Multi-site (cross-WAN) capability with inter-site CAC
Off-Premises eXtension (OPX)
Outbound call blocking
Out-of-band Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF)
Programmable line keys
PSTN failover on route no availability: AAR
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Q.SIG
 Alerting name specified in ISO 13868 as part of the Connected Name Identification
Presentation (SS-CONP)
 Basic call
 ID services
 General function procedures
 Call back: ISO/IEC 13870: 2nd Edition, 2001-07 (Completion of Calls to Busy
Subscriber [CCBS] and Call Completion on No Reply [CCNR])
 Call diversion: SS-CFB (busy), SS-CFNR (no answer), and SS-CFU
(unconditional); service ISO/IEC 13872 and ISO/IEC 13873, first edition 1995-call
diversion by forward switching and by rerouting
 Call transfer by join
 H.323 Annex M.1 (Q.SIG over H.323)-ITU recommendation for Annex M.1
 Identification restriction (Calling Name Identification Restriction [CNIR],
Connected Line Identification Restriction [COLR], and Connected Name
Identification Restriction [CONR])
 Loop prevention, diversion counter and reason, loop detection, diverted to number,
diverting number, original called name and number, original diversion reason, and
redirecting name
 MWI
 Path replacement ISO/IEC 13863: 2nd Ed. 1998, and ISO/IEC 13974: 2nd Ed. 1999
Station through trunk (MGCP gateways)
 JTAPI and TAPI applications enabled with automated failover and automatic update
 Triple Cisco Unified Communications Manager redundancy per device (phones,
gateway, and applications) with automated failover and recovery
 Trunk groups
 MGCP BRI support (ETSI BRI basic-net3 user-side only)
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Security
 Secure conferencing is available to all members of the conference.
 Configurable operation modes: Non-secure or secure modes can be configured.
 Device authentication: New model phones have an embedded X.509v3 certificate; a
CAPF is used to install a locally significant certificate in the phones.
 Data integrity: The Transport Layer Security (TLS) cipher NULL-SHA is supported;
messages are appended with the SHA1 hash of the message to help ensure that they
are not altered on the wire and can be trusted.
 Cisco Unified Communications Manager offers secure HTTP support for Cisco
Unified Communications Manager Administration, Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Serviceability, Cisco Unified Communications Manager User Pages, and
Cisco Unified Communications Manager CDR Analysis and Reporting Tool.
 Privacy: Signaling and media are encrypted, including Cisco Unified IP Phone
7906G, 7911G, 7921G, 7940G, 7931G, 7941G, 7941G-GE, 7942G, 7945G, 7960G,
7961G, 7961G-GE, 7962G, 7965G, 7970G, 7971G, and 7975G models; Cisco
Unified SRST; and MGCP gateways.
 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for directory: Supported applications include Cisco
Unified Communications Manager Bulk Administration Tool (BAT), Cisco Unified
Communications Manager CDR Analysis and Reporting Tool, Cisco Unified
Communications Manager Admin User Pages, Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Assistant Admin Pages, Cisco Unified IP Phone Options Pages, Cisco
Conference Connection, Cisco CTI Manager, Cisco Communications Manager
Extension Mobility, and Cisco Communications Manager Assistant.
 A USB eToken containing a Cisco rooted X.509v3 certificate is used to generate a
Certificate of Trust List (CTL) file for the phones and to configure the security mode
of the cluster.
 Phone security: Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) files (configuration and
firmware loads) are signed with the self-signed certificate of the TFTP server; the
Cisco Unified Communications Manager system administrator can disable HTTP
and Telnet on IP phones.
 SIP trunk (RFC 3261) and line side (RFC 3261-based services) are supported.
 Cisco Unified SRST is supported.
Service Advertisement Framework - Call Control Discovery
Shared resource and application management and configuration
 Transcoder resource
 Conference bridge resource
 Topological association of shared resource devices (conference bridge, Music-onHold [MoH] sources, and transcoders)
 Media Termination Point (MTP): Support for SIP trunk and RFC 2833
 Annunciator
Silence suppression and Voice Activity Detection (VAD)
Silent monitoring
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Simplified North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and non-NANP support
SIP routing (centralized) with Session Management Edition
SIP trunk Call Admission Control (SIP CAC)
T.38 fax support (H.323, MGCP, and SIP)
Third-party applications support
 Broadcast paging: Through Foreign eXchange Station (FXS)
 Simple Messaging Desktop Interface (SMDI) for MWI
 Hook-flash feature support on selected FXS gateways
 TSP 2.1
Support for hunt lists, call pickup, and call forward
 JTAPI 2.0 service provider interface
Support for hunt lists, call pickup, and call forward
 Billing and call statistics
 Configuration database API (Cisco AXL)
Time-of-day, day-of-week, and day-of-year routing and restrictions
Toll restriction: Dial-plan partition
Toll-fraud prevention
 Prevent trunk-to-trunk transfer
 Drop conference call when originator hangs up
 Require forced-authorization codes
Unified device and system configuration
Unified dial plan
Video codecs: H.261, H.263, H.264, and Cisco Wideband Video Codec (Cisco Unified
Video Advantage)
Video telephony (SCCP, H.323, and SIP)
Table 6. Summary of User Features
Abbreviated dial
Answer and answer release
Auto answer and intercom
Callback busy and no reply to station
Call connection
Call coverage
Call forward: All (off net and on net), busy, no answer, no bandwidth, and not registered
Call hold and retrieve
Call join
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Call park and pickup
Call pickup group: Universal
Call pickup notification (audible or visual)
Call status per line (state, duration, and number)
Call waiting and retrieve (with configurable audible alerting)
Calling Line Identification (CLID) and Calling party Name Identification (CNID)
Calling Line Identification Restriction (CLIR) call by call
Conference barge
Conference chaining
Conference list and drop any party (impromptu conference)
Dialed-number display
Direct Inward Dialing (DID) and Direct Outward Dialing (DOD)
Directed call park with Busy Lamp Field (BLF)
Directory dial from phone: Corporate and personal
Directories: Missed, placed, and received calls list stored on selected IP phones
Distinctive ring for on- and off-net status, per-line appearance, and per phone
Do not disturb (do not ring and call reject)
Drop last conference party (impromptu conferences)
Extension Mobility
Extension Mobility Cross Cluster
Extension Mobility PIN change from phone
Hands-free, full-duplex speakerphone
HTML help access from phone
HTTPS for phone services; for example, Extension Mobility
Hold reversion
Immediate divert to voicemail
Intercom with whisper
Join across lines
Last-number redial (on and off net)
Log in and log out of hunt groups
Malicious-call ID and trace
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Manager-assistant service (Cisco Unified Communications Manager Assistant application)
proxy line support
 Manager features: Immediate divert or transfer, do not disturb, divert all calls, call
intercept, call filtering on CLID, intercom, and speed dials
 Assistant features: Intercom, immediate divert or transfer, divert all calls, and manager
call handling through assistant console application
shared-line support
 Manager features: Immediate divert or transfer, do not disturb, intercom, speed dials,
barge, direct transfer, and join
 Assistant features: Handle calls for managers; view manager status and calls; create
speed dials for frequently used numbers; search for people in directory; handle calls on
their own lines; immediate divert or transfer, intercom, barge, privacy, multiple calls
per line, direct transfer, and join; send DTMF digits from console; and determine MWI
status of manager phone
system capabilities: Multiple managers per assistant (up to 33 lines) and redundant service
Manager-assistant service now available on a Cisco Unified IP Phone with Cisco Unified
Communications Manager 6.0
MWI (visual and audio)
Multiparty conference: Impromptu with add-on meet-me features
Multiple calls per line appearance
Multiple line appearances per phone
MoH
Mute capability from speakerphone and handset
On-hook dialing
Original calling party information on transfer from voicemail
Privacy
Real-time QoS statistics through HTTP browser to phone
Recent dial list: Calls to phone, calls from phone, autodial, and edit dial
Service URL: Single-button access to IP phone service
Single-button barge
Single-directory number and multiple phones: Bridged line appearances
Speed dial: Multiple speed dials per phone
Station volume controls (audio and ringer)
Transfer: Blind, consultative, and direct transfer of two parties on a line
User-configured speed dial and call forward through web access
Video (SCCP, H.323, and SIP)
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VPN client on IP Phone
Web services access from phone
Web dialer: Click to dial
Wideband audio codec support: Proprietary 16-bit resolution; 16-kHz sampling rate codec
ii.
Unified messaging
Response:
Cisco Unity Connection is a feature-rich voice messaging platform based on the same Linux
Unified Communications Operating System as Cisco Unified Communications Manager. With
Cisco Unity Connection, you can access voice messages using Cisco Unified Personal
Communicator (Figure 10), or use the display on your Cisco Unified IP Phone (see Figure 11)
to view, search, sort, and play messages. Cisco Unity Connection also provides robust
Automated-Attendant functions that include intelligent call routing and easily customizable callscreen and message-notification options.
Figure 10. Example of Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
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Figure 11. Rich Messaging Experience on Cisco Unified IP Phone
At its core, Cisco Unity Connection is a powerful voice messaging system with many advanced
capabilities that you can customize to maximize your individual and team productivity. You can
personalize communications options and interact with the system to manage calls and messages
in the way that is most comfortable and convenient for you. The flexible user interface makes
messaging more efficient for "power users" and occasional voicemail users alike. For example,
you can even customize your Telephone User Interface (TUI) and touchtone mappings to make
migration from traditional voicemail systems much easier.
To maximize the productivity of mobile workers, Cisco Unity Connection offers a natural and
robust speech-activated user interface that allows you to browse and manage your voice
messages using simple, natural speech commands.
In addition, the Speech Connect for Cisco Unity Connection feature is a built-in speech-enabled
Automated Attendant that enables you to call other Cisco Unity Connection users or personal
contacts by simply using your voice.
Manage your voice messages from a variety of devices and locations, whichever best suits the
way you work.

Cisco Unified Personal Communicator voicemail integration
 You can access your voice messages directly from the Cisco Unified Personal
Communicator client.
 You can use the integrated media player to play and delete messages.
 You can easily access presence and availability information about the person you are
calling in the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator client; then click to call the
person back and escalate to web chat, video, or other multimedia session.
 Cisco Unity Connection Inbox web browser interface to voice messages
 You can view, sort, play, compose, forward, and reply to voice messages.
January 31, 2012
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You can use the Digital Video Recorder (DVR)-style interface to play, rewind, pause,
or fast forward messages.
 You can easily address messages to multiple recipients and distribution lists.
 Voice messages in the Cisco Unity Connection Inbox are synchronized with the
Message-Waiting Indicator (MWI) on your telephone.
 Web browser-based tools are supported on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
 Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)-based email client to access voice messages
 You can access email and voicemail messages and play and delete voice messages
from within the same desktop email client using the built-in ViewMail for Outlook or
ViewMail for Notes player.
 Voice messages in your email inbox are synchronized with the MWI on your
telephone.
 Various standards-based desktop email clients are supported, including Microsoft
Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Entourage for Mac.
 You can compose, reply to, and forward messages by using IMAP clients.
 Visual voicemail on your Cisco Unified IP Phone
 You can view, sort, play, compose, forward, and reply to voice messages from the
screen on your IP phone without having to dial in to the system.

iii.
Mobility
Response:
Cisco mobile solutions offer a variety of intelligent endpoints, including wireless IP phones and
applications for smartphones. Employees communicate however they like, whether they are in
the office, on the road, or at home. Cisco Collaboration Solutions allow all endpoints to operate
from a highly secure, enterprise-managed platform.
With mobile solutions, you combine the convenience, flexibility, and reach of mobile
communications with the benefits of Cisco collaboration. This combination greatly enhances
employee effectiveness by:

Reducing complexity
 Supporting the use of a single business number and voice mailbox
 Allowing communications to shift more easily between voice calls, voicemail, email,
conferencing, and instant messaging
 Improving the ability to make the right connection, or find the appropriate information
the first time.
Cisco Unified Mobility makes it easy for enterprise workers to keep in touch with the business at
hand, whether at their desks or mobile. It introduces Cisco Mobile Connect enterprise mobility
services to extend the benefits of IP communications to workers inside and outside the enterprise
campus. An application server that integrates with Cisco Unified Communications Manager,
Cisco Unified Mobility intelligently manages, filters, routes, and places calls between a worker's
IP phone and remote mobile phone. With Cisco Unified Mobility, a worker can receive and place
business calls from the devices most convenient for the task without interrupting the calls,
January 31, 2012
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whether in the office, in transit, or at a remote location. Cisco Unified Mobility also helps
enterprise IT and telecom managers better serve the communication needs of their mobile
workers, while enabling them to take advantage of the enterprise IP communications network
resources available with Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Single Business Number Reach
Cisco Unified Mobility makes Cisco Mobile Connect services available to Cisco Unified
Communications Manager users who want to consolidate all their business calls with a single
enterprise IP phone number and immediately connect wherever they are working. Enterprise
customers now need only a single phone number to reach enterprise workers and the enterprise
can provide more responsive service with no additional effort. For enterprise mobile workers,
Cisco Unified Mobility also reduces the burden of having to share their private mobile phone
number and having to check for business calls in their mobile voicemail box.
Single Business Voicemail
If mobile workers are unable to answer Cisco Mobile Connect calls, they can rely on Cisco
Unified Mobility to store the unanswered calls in the Cisco Unity voice messaging system, or
other enterprise voicemail system. Workers can manage all voicemail using the single enterprise
voicemail box.
Device Mobility
Mobile phones are great when moving from location to location, but when a mobile worker
arrives at the office, the mobile phone becomes less convenient. With the Cisco Mobile Connect
services of Cisco Unified Mobility, mobile workers can continue a call on their IP desk phone
after they arrive at the office and take advantage of speakerphone or other IP phone services.
Important calls can be continued without interruption, and workers can use the best available IP
or mobile features for the specific time and place.
Cisco Mobile Voice Access
Cisco Unified Mobility makes all the major enterprise IP communications features available to
workers while they are traveling. For example, an enterprise mobile worker who needs to call one of
the enterprise’s foreign offices while traveling can use the Cisco Mobile Voice Access line to place
the call as if from the enterprise home office. The worker dials the Cisco Mobile Voice Access line
from the mobile phone and places the call on the enterprise IP communications network over a tie
line. The connection is completed, and telecom costs are kept under control.
Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator is an easy-to-use software application that securely extends
unified communications to smartphones. It delivers measurable cost savings by routing mobile
calls through the corporate telephony infrastructure and productivity enhancements with mobile
presence, visual voicemail, corporate directory access, and access to office call logs (Figure 12).
January 31, 2012
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Figure 12. Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator
According to Forrester Research, inefficient communications – specifically the inability to
quickly reach mobile and remote colleagues – is the cause of internal decision delays. Timesensitive concerns depend on reaching people and resources quickly and efficiently. With Cisco
Unified Mobile Communicator, your mobile users are more connected and have real-time access
to critical information. Mobile users get alerted to missed office calls and new voice messages.
Visual voicemail enables workers to prioritize messages and respond to calls faster and more
efficiently (Figure 13). Presence on the smartphone eliminates failed attempts to reach someone,
and helps find an available resource to get help quickly.
Figure 13. Visual Voicemail on iPhone and Nokia and BlackBerry
Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator is currently available on the following mobile platforms:

Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS
 BlackBerry OS (most models except for touch devices)
January 31, 2012
51

Nokia N series and E series (most models)
 Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 Standard Edition.
iv.
Desktop video
Response:
Cisco Unified Communications Solutions unify voice, video, data, and mobile applications on
fixed and mobile networks, delivering a media-rich collaboration experience across business,
government agency, and institutional workspaces. These applications use the network as the
platform to enhance comparative advantage by accelerating decision time and reducing
transaction time. The security, resilience, and scalability of the network help users in any
workspace to easily connect every time, everywhere, using any media, device, or operating
system. Cisco Unified Communications is part of a comprehensive solution that includes
network infrastructure, security, wireless, management applications, lifecycle services, flexible
deployment and outsourced management options, and third-party applications.
Interactive Face-to-Face Communications
Cisco Unified Video Advantage (Figure 14) brings video telephony functions to Cisco Unified
IP Phones (Cisco Unified IP Phones 6900 and 7900 Series models and the Cisco IP
Communicator softphone application).
Figure 14. Cisco Unified Video Advantage
This video telephony solution consists of Cisco Unified Video Advantage software and Cisco
VT Camera (Figure 15), a video telephony Universal-Serial-Bus (USB) camera. You can make
calls from your Cisco Unified IP Phone using the familiar phone interface, and calls are
displayed with video on your PC without pushing any button or clicking your mouse.
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Figure 15. Cisco VT Camera
When registered to Cisco Unified Communications Manager, the Cisco Unified Video
Advantage-enabled phone transforms your phone into a full-featured IP videophone. It supports
conversations on any video endpoint supported by Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
System administrators can provision a Cisco Unified IP Phone with Cisco Unified Video
Advantage just as they would any other Cisco Unified IP Phone, greatly simplifying deployment
and management. Enterprise customers now have a cost-effective, scalable, and visually
interactive IP communications solution.
Important Features and Benefits
Cisco Unified Video Advantage is innovative in that video telephone calls are just like regular
phone calls. Features such as call forward, transfer, conference, and hold are now available with
video, and they are all initiated through the Cisco Unified IP Phone. IP telephony and IP video
telephony are delivered to every employee using a unified dial plan and a common directory over
a single Cisco Unified Communications infrastructure.
The video codec and bandwidth selection in Cisco Unified Video Advantage is completely
controlled by Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Business Edition, or Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, so you need no special
experience or knowledge about video capabilities or settings. You no longer need to predetermine if the other end of the call is a video endpoint or phone.
Enabling interactive face-to-face communications at the desktop enhances productivity and the
quality of communications, streamlines business decision making, and improves teamwork. By
reducing the need for in-person meetings, Cisco Unified Video Advantage can help your
company save money on travel expenses, strengthen an existing telecommuting program, or
reduce your organization’s carbon footprint in traveling to meetings. Cisco Unified Video
Advantage is designed to deliver enhanced modes of communication while protecting existing
unified communications investments.
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Optimized Business Communications
Cisco Unified Video Advantage features the latest technology and advancements available with
true IP communications today. You can now take full advantage of your IP network to extend
enterprise-class voice and video to everyone in your organization. This dynamic solution is
designed to grow with new system capabilities.
Cisco Unified Video Advantage Features
Cisco Unified Video Advantage is intuitively designed and easy to use, and it delivers
convenient access to a host of features.







Phone association choice: You can place Cisco Unified Video Advantage video calls
with either a Cisco Unified IP Phone or Cisco IP Communicator
Camera on and off: You can opt to “receive only” by disabling your camera
Video preview: You can check your video before placing or receiving calls
Video confirmation: You can optionally enable confirmation before sending a video
Mute video on audio mute option: When you mute the audio on the phone, video is
automatically muted until you resume the audio
Easy access to video controls: Controls for showing the console, video window options,
and video window position are conveniently available from the video windows
Video signal indicators: Quality of incoming and outgoing video signals is graphically
displayed.
Video Features
Cisco Unified Video Advantage is interoperable with most third-party H.323 video terminals
from verified IP video telephony partners. In addition, it offers the following video features:

H.263 and H.264 video codecs: Bit rates from 50 kbps to 1.5 Mbps
 Video formats (up to 30 frames per second): 352 x 288, 320 x 240, 176 x 144, and 160 x
120.
v.
Collaboration
Response:
As today’s workplace becomes more complex, global, and mobile, businesses are seeking better,
smarter ways to collaborate. The new collaboration experience is about connecting people,
information, and teams, providing context so they can find the people and information they need
— fast. Cisco Communications Manager Express lets you provide unified communications
capabilities in your organization. This solution features powerful call processing for Cisco
Unified IP Phones as part of a converged voice and data solution, powered by a Cisco router.
Cisco Unified Communications solutions let you deliver a media-rich collaboration experience to
employees, customers, and business partners. These solutions let you use the network as a
platform to improve your competitive advantage by accelerating decision time and reducing
transaction time. The security, resilience, and scalability of the network enable users in any
workspace to easily connect anywhere, anytime, and anyplace, using virtually any medium,
device, or operating system.
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Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express delivers the advanced communications
capabilities you need to better compete in today’s global market:







vi.
Rich phone feature set: Innovative key system and Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
capabilities are available within feature-rich Cisco IOS Software
Low cost: This full-featured call processing solution is available on the Cisco Integrated
Services Routers (ISRs), which are simple to deploy, administer, and maintain
Increased employee productivity: Users have call control, location, and status of other
users with Cisco Unified CallConnector for Microsoft Windows, a presence-based
Windows application
User-specified call handling: Users can take advantage of single number reach by
extending incoming business calls to mobile or home phones based on rules they specify
with Cisco Unified CallConnector Mobility
Easy installation and changes: An intuitive management interface makes moves, adds,
and changes easy
Business process transformation: Integration with your existing business process
applications, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is delivered in
combination with Cisco Unified CallConnector applications
Industry-leading investment protection: The solution supports up to 450 users,
interoperates with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and enables planned
migration strategies in support of future growth.
Presence
Response:
Cisco Unified Presence “Powered by Jabber,” part of the Cisco Unified Communications
Solutions suite, is delivered on an appliance that provides standards-based dual protocol
enterprise instant messaging and presence as part of Cisco Unified Communications. This secure,
scalable, and easy to manage solution offers users feature rich communications capabilities both
within and external to the enterprise.
Cisco Unified Presence is tightly integrated with various desktop clients and applications. It
enables Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, the Cisco Unified Communications enterprise
desktop client, to perform numerous functions such as instant messaging, click to call, phone
control, voice, video, and Web collaboration. Cisco Unified Presence provides a unified presence
service for Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator and other mobile clients. The solution also
provides an integrated Instant Messaging and presence experience for various contact center
applications. Cisco Unified Presence supports the interfacing of third-party Extensible
Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) clients and has built-in support for persistent chat. In
addition, it provides Cisco Unified Communications Manager telephony presence for IBM
Sametime and telephony enablement of Microsoft Office Communicator.
Cisco Unified Presence offers customers and partners the flexibility of rich, open interfaces that
allow enablement of Instant Messaging and presence to enable business applications.
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Product Overview
Customers adopt Cisco Unified Communication Solutions to increase productivity, speed up
communication, and enable collaboration with either colleagues within the enterprise or external
partners and suppliers.
Cisco Unified Presence takes the rich feature set of the Jabber Extensible Communications
Platform (XCP) and delivers it as part of Cisco Unified Presence. Using this Jabber technology,
it delivers enhanced enterprise instant messaging features, including group chat, persistent chat,
and IM logging, along with a suite of business-to-business and business-to-consumer Instant
Messaging and presence open federations.
Cisco Unified Presence lays the foundation to deliver enterprise Instant Messaging and presence
enabled collaboration capabilities. Customers powered by Cisco Unified Presence and Cisco
Unified Communications Solutions can then view the presence status or availability of the
people they want to communicate with, exchange instant messages with these individuals, and
escalate to a voice call or rich collaborative session.
Cisco Unified Presence natively supports standards-based Jabber XMPP and SIP for Instant
Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIP/SIMPLE). With this dual protocol
capability, Cisco Unified Presence offers customers a choice of either rich featured Cisco
Unified Communications clients or any third-party XMPP-compliant Instant Messaging and
presence client.
Cisco Unified Presence also supports presence oriented Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
and Representational State Transfer (REST) interfaces. In addition, Cisco Unified Presence
enables integration through Cisco XMPP Libraries, which is a Java script presence and Instant
Messaging interface that allows customers and application developers to extend presence and
Instant Messaging to Web based applications.
Cisco Unified Presence offers customers many communication client options. The client a
customer uses depends on the services or environment in which the customer deploys Cisco
Unified Presence. Cisco Unified Presence allows the ability to mix and match clients depending
on the needs of the enterprise.
Cisco Unified Personal Communicator (Mac and PC) provides one of the richest desktop unified
communications experiences, supporting Instant Messaging, presence, video, desktop phone
control, and soft phones with rich collaborative integrations into Cisco Unity and Cisco Unity
Connection applications. It also allows for escalation to collaborative desktop sharing into Cisco
WebEx and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace applications.
Mobile workers often need to be connected to the enterprise, and they can use Cisco Unified
Mobile Communicator embedded in a smart mobile device to connect and then get and set
presence to Cisco Unified Presence, breaking the boundary of the enterprise and remaining
connected and part of it, despite being on the move.
Customers who require a secure, policy controlled, rich Instant Messaging and presence solution
as part of their enterprises but do not require a full unified communications experience can also
deploy Cisco Unified Presence. Cisco Unified Presence supports the connection of third-party
desktop and mobile XMPP clients that comply with the XMPP standard to get access to the
integrated Instant Messaging and presence services of Cisco Unified Presence.
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First call resolution is a critical part of any contact center interaction. Cisco Unified Presence in
conjunction with Cisco Unified Expert Advisor enables contact centers to deliver on first call
resolution to increase productivity by allowing an agent or a self-service Interactive Voice
Response (IVR) application to automatically engage an expert using presence if the customer
needs expert assistance in closing out an inquiry.
vii.
Contact center
Response:
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express meets the needs of mid-market and enterprise branchoffice or departmental companies that need easy-to-deploy, easy-to-use, secure, virtual, highly
available, and sophisticated customer interaction management for up to 300 agents. Cisco
Unified Contact Center Express support for powerful, agent-based service as well as fully
integrated self-service applications results in reduced business costs and improved customer
response by providing sophisticated and distributed Automatic Call Distributor (ACD),
Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), and agent and
desktop services in a single-server, contact-center-in-a-box deployment while offering the
flexibility to scale to larger, more demanding environments. Cisco Unified Contact Center
Express helps ensure your business rules for inbound and outbound voice and email; and
customer interaction management helps ensure that each contact is delivered to the right agent
the first time.
To help companies provide efficient, effective, customer-focused service in the contact center,
supervisors must have the tools they need to manage team performance. Cisco Unified
Workforce Optimization for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express helps supervisors and other
managers align contact center performance with business objectives by integrating workforce
optimization into the team’s daily workflow. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is provided
in three versions: Standard, Enhanced, and Premium, to better match product functions with your
customer contact interaction management requirements. All Cisco Unified Contact Center
Express products are tightly integrated with Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Maximum Return on Investment (ROI) for contact centers is provided when your company’s
business rules can influence the behavior of the contact center. The routing capabilities of Cisco
Unified Contact Center Express facilitate categorization and prioritization of customer contacts
in a way that best meets your business requirements to help ensure that each contact is routed to
the right agent at the right location the first time to maximize resolution on the first call. Cisco
Unified Contact Center Express routing supports a wide range of routing logic that can
accurately target and selectively route different classes of contacts, or even single out individual
contacts for customized, prioritized routing treatment.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers call-routing behaviors based on conditional events,
such as time of day, day of week, or holiday routing, as well as the ability to specify service
levels, move contacts between agent groups, and reprioritize contacts in the queue based on your
business rules. With Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium, product integration with
your enterprise’s customer database can help ensure that the optimal routing decisions are made.
In addition, the application can give agents extensive information on a per-contact basis through
a Customer-Relationship-Management (CRM) or other application screen pop.
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Customers are turning to company Web sites to locate information about products and services,
to seek support, and to conduct transactions. In addition, customers are seeking alternative ways,
such as email, to contact customer support centers, and the volume of incoming email
interactions to contact centers is growing. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers the Agent
E-Mail feature for email management.
Agent E-Mail is a basic email queuing and response system, designed specifically for Cisco
Agent Desktop for the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express platform. Agent E-Mail is a zerofootprint feature that is tightly integrated into the Agent Desktop embedded browser, with
controls built into the toolbar and display. It enables contact centers to queue and route email
messages to staff and skilled agents, helping strike a balance between email and call-handling
activities.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can integrate with any CRM or other application that can
run on the agent’s Microsoft Windows desktop. Integration is achieved by using a powerful realtime programmable CTI workflow engine that invokes keystroke-macro emulation to automate
the transfer of caller-entered information, or performing an external application action. Cisco
Unified Contact Center Express provides powerful integration tools through support for custom
Java classes and methods that can be invoked under real-time workflow control. These features
facilitate the integration of Cisco Agent Desktop with other Windows and Web-based
applications with minimal software development.
In addition, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium allows you to apply HTTP
integration to provide integration and a screen pop with browser-based applications such as
Salesforce.com running in the Cisco Agent Desktop embedded browser.
Finally, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express third-party CTI protocol provides for deep
integration with ACD and IVR subsystems for traditional custom CTI integrations.
Unlike many competitive products, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express does not require
purchase of additional IVR services, but rather provides an integrated, ready-to-use IVR
solution. Every package provides an IVR queue point, custom call treatment, arbitrarily deep
voice menus, custom voice prompts, and the ability to process customer phone-keypad presses
through Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) processing to make routing decisions or to present
a screen pop to the agent.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium adds the ability to have true, sophisticated, and
fully automated self-service applications integrated with your agent-assisted contact interaction
management. This critical feature enables significant cost reduction on a per-contact basis and
provides significant flexibility in handling customer contacts.
Two, full self-service IVR ports are packaged at no additional charge with each Cisco Unified
Contact Center Express Premium seat. In addition, support is provided for adding advanced selfservice technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text to Speech (TTS), and
Voice XML. The application also supports real-time notification services through email and
third-party fax or paging solutions, as well as the ability to invoke custom workflow processing
(for example, Web-based callback) through HTTP requests.
Each Cisco Unified Contact Center Express seat provides optimal flexibility in your contact
center by providing full licensing to use the seat as either an agent or a supervisor seat. Enhanced
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and Premium agent seats can be either PC- or Cisco Unified IP Phone-based agent stations.
Standard seats provide a Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent IP Phone-based agent station. Each seat
provides full licensing for Cisco Agent Desktop or Cisco IP Phone Agent, Cisco Supervisor
Desktop, Cisco Desktop Administrator, and Cisco Historical Reporting Client; for the Enhanced
and Premium versions, Cisco Supervisor and Agent Desktop include on-demand recording in
addition to full licensing. With the Enhanced and Premium versions, even if a PC failure occurs,
an agent is fully licensed to continue working through the Cisco IP Phone Agent.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express keeps the agent in touch with every call through critical
data and call-state information by providing the ability to present a screen pop to the agent for
each call. Information presented to the agent includes customer-entered data as well as call-state
information describing how long the call has been connected to the ACD, how long the call has
been in queue, and how long the agent has been talking with the caller.
Cisco Agent Desktop gives agents tools to access information and respond rapidly to customer
requests. Voice contact workflows, the enterprise data pane, and the integrated browser display
(screen pop) show agents customer data as calls are presented, preventing redirection of calls and
the necessity for customers to repeat information. Task automation buttons and the personal
phone directory allow agents to instantly activate frequently performed functions that shorten
response time and automate after-call work to follow up on a customer inquiry. Collaboration
tools such as chat and transfer of caller data help keep responses accurate.
Additionally, Cisco Agent Desktop offers the ability to provide workflows that process business
rules based on critical call-state events, the ability to invoke any CRM or other application able
to run on the agent’s Microsoft Windows desktop, and the ability to display information in the
form of a screen pop from the ACD or IVR subsystem to that application.
The ability of Cisco Supervisor Desktop to monitor critical performance metrics and actively
chat, monitor, record, and send team messages allows managers to coach, train, and encourage
agent behavior so that agents consistently perform their job function and process calls efficiently.
The ability to send agents scrolling team messages and chat with individual members or the
entire team allows supervisors to coach agents, resolve problems, and instantly communicate
business changes. Supervisors can coach agents unobtrusively on cross-sell and up-sell
opportunities and help agents resolve customer situations.
Within the supervisor desktop, contact center managers can see team performance, agent
statistics, and status at a glance by using easy-to-navigate tabbed pages and graphical reports. To
coach agents, they can silently monitor calls and offer encouragement using chat. They can also
initiate call recording for later review and training.
Supervisors can interrupt an agent’s call to create a three-way conference, and then interact with
both the caller and the agent to help resolve a concern. A supervisor can remove the agent from a
call using the Intercept feature, allowing the supervisor and caller to complete the call on their
own while the agent handles another customer request.
Supervisors can change an agent’s state from their desktop. For example, agents may forget to
make themselves available to take calls after a break or neglect to log out when they are away
from their workstation for an extended period. With Cisco Supervisor Desktop, supervisors can
easily log out missing agents or make unintentionally idle agents ready to take calls. This
function is critical to highly distributed contact center deployments. Supervisors can also change
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an agent’s skill profile in real time. This capability gives supervisors tactical tools to manage
their agent teams and support contact center management objectives.
For mobile supervisors or supervisors who want to be more in tune with their team in the contact
center, there is Cisco Mobile Supervisor, which allows supervisors to remain connected to realtime reporting information and monitor their teams from their mobile devices. Supervisors can
view a subset of Cisco Supervisor Desktop reports, including a list of queues belonging to a
selected team, the queue summary report for a selected queue, and agents belonging to a selected
team or a queue, along with their current agent state. If a problem arises, the supervisor is
connected, sees the problem, and can communicate with the team to adjust resources
appropriately to meet or exceed customer satisfaction requirements.
The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express solution provides the real-time and historical data
necessary for mission-critical contact center reporting. Real-time reports are provided at the
supervisor level (integrated with the Cisco Supervisor Desktop) on a per-agent or per-team basis
and also at the administration level, across the entire contact center.
The reporting function provides accurate and timely reports on contact center activity, helping
managers make informed decisions regarding staffing levels, contact-handling procedures, and
technology investments. Standard reporting templates provide automatically operational
functions for common reporting needs. Custom reports can extend the standard reporting
package to meet specific reporting needs. Furthermore, the open software architecture of Cisco
Unified Contact Center Express allows for export of reporting data in a variety of formats.
g. Describe the group partitioning features and capabilities of the proposed solution.
Response:
The proposed solution utilizes the function of class of services to implement group partitioning
features. Class of Service is implemented through calling search spaces and partitions in Cisco
Unified Communications Manager. A partition comprises a logical grouping of Directory
Numbers (DNs) and route patterns with similar reachability characteristics. Devices that are
typically placed in partitions include DNs and route patterns. These entities associate with DNs
that users dial. For simplicity, partition names usually reflect their characteristics, such as
“NYLongDistancePT,” “NY911PT,” and so on.
A calling search space comprises an ordered list of partitions that users can look at before users
are allowed to place a call. Calling search spaces determine the partitions that calling devices,
including IP phones, softphones, and gateways can search when attempting to complete a call.
When a calling search space is assigned to a device, the list of partitions in the calling search
space comprises only the partitions that the device is allowed to reach. All other DNs that are in
partitions that are not in the device calling search space receive a busy signal.
Partitions and calling search spaces address three specific problems:

Routing by geographical location
 Routing by tenant
 Routing by class of user.
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Partitions and calling search spaces provide a way to segregate the global dialable address space.
The global dialable address space comprises the complete set of dialing patterns to which Cisco
Unified Communications Manager can respond.
Partitions do not significantly impact the performance of digit analysis, but every partition that is
specified in a calling device search space does require that an additional analysis pass through
the analysis data structures. The digit analysis process looks through every partition in a calling
search space for the best match. The order of the partitions that are listed in the calling search
space serves only to break ties when equally good matches occur in two different partitions. If no
partition is specified for a pattern, the pattern goes in the null partition to resolve dialed digits.
Digit analysis always looks through the null partition last.
You can associate partitions with a time schedule and a time zone. Associating a partition to a
time schedule and a time zone allows configuration of time-of-day routing for calls that are
coming into a partition and the associated calling search spaces of the partition.
h. Describe the following telephony instruments included in the proposed solution:
i.
Economy model IP telephone
Response:
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 is an innovative endpoint that delivers affordable, businessgrade voice communications and support for video communications services to customers
worldwide.
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 (Figure 16) supports two lines and offers a full-duplex
speakerphone for a more productive, more flexible, and easier-to-use endpoint experience. The
Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 supports single-call per-line appearance, offering traditional
telephony-like user experience for customers who seek this type of call interaction for their
users. Fixed keys for hold, transfer, and conference; tri-color LED line and feature keys also
make the phone simpler and easier to use.
Figure 16. Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 Offers Two Colors and Two Handset Style Options
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 offers greater personalization, with the choice of two colors
and two handset style options. Right-to-left language presentation is also supported on the
displays, addressing the language localization needs of global customers.
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The Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 is also more energy-efficient and eco-friendly, in support of
customer green initiatives. A Deep-Sleep option provides energy savings. With this option, the
Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 consumes up to 50 percent less power in off-hours versus when the
phone is idle during normal business hours. In addition, reground and recyclable plastics deliver
a more earth-responsible solution.
With adoption of Cisco Unified Video Advantage 2.2 and later and the VTIII camera, you can
elevate your communication experience with support for video communications. Your PC
monitor provides support for the video communications while voice communications are
supported by your IP Phone 6921 endpoint. Table 7 lists the features and benefits of the Cisco
Unified IP Phone 6921.
Table 7. Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 Features and Benefits
Feature
Benefit
Lighted Hold Key
The key lights when pressed to put a call on hold and
stays lit until the held call has been resumed, or flashes if
one call is held while another is engaged; the key is dark
when no calls are on hold.
Lighted Menu Key
The key lights when pressed to access voicemail
messages, call logs, network settings, user preferences,
corporate directories, and XML services; it stays lit while
menu items are active.
Lighted Message Waiting
Indicator
The key lights when there is new voicemail, and the light
is visible on both the phone chassis and the handset; it
stays lit until you process your new voicemail.
Graphical Display
A 396 x 81 pixel-based, anti-glare, monochrome display
with white backlight provides scrollable access to calling
features and text-based XML applications.
Deep-Sleep Option
Power savings can be recognized by cycling power by
time of day and day of week.
Co-Branding
Co-Branding button allows customers to include their
logo on the Cisco Unified IP Phone 6900 Series phones.
Cisco has approved third-party vendors to produce the
buttons.
Multiple-Language Support
The following languages are supported:
 Arabic (Arabic area)
 Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
 Catalan (Spain)
 Chinese (China)
 Chinese (Hong Kong)
 Chinese (Taiwan)
 Croatian (Croatia)
 Czech (Czech Republic)
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Feature
Benefit





























Danish (Denmark)
Dutch (Netherlands)
English (United Kingdom) (Prompts only)
Estonian (Estonia)
French (France)
Finnish (Finland)
German (Germany)
Greek (Greece)
Hebrew (Israel)
Hungarian (Hungary)
Italian (Italy)
Japanese (Japan)
Latvian (Latvia)
Lithuanian (Lithuania)
Korean (Korea Republic)
Norwegian (Norway)
Polish (Poland)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Romanian (Romania)
Russian (Russian Federation)
Spanish (Spain)
Slovak (Slovakia)
Swedish (Sweden)
Serbian (Republic of Serbia)
Serbian (Republic of Montenegro)
Slovenian (Slovenia)
Thai (Thailand)
Turkish (Turkey).
Speakerphone
Full-duplex speakerphone allows for flexibility in
placing and receiving calls.
Headset Support
RJ9 interface to optional headset allows customers to
enjoy additional options for place and receiving calls.
Four Softkey Buttons and a
Scroll Toggle Bar
Your calling options are dynamically present; the scroll
toggle bar allows easy movement through the displayed
information.
Network Features
Network features include Cisco Discovery Protocol and
IEEE 802.1 p/q tagging and switching.
Ethernet Switch
The phone has a 10/100BASE-T Ethernet connection
January 31, 2012
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Feature
Benefit
through two RJ-45 ports, one for the LAN connection
and the other for connecting a downstream Ethernet
device such as a PC.
Volume Control
A volume-control toggle provides easy decibel-level
adjustments of the handset, monitor speaker, and ringer.
Dual-Position Foot Stand
The display is easy to view and the buttons and keys are
easy to use; you can remove the foot stand for wall
mounting, with mounting holes located on the base of the
phone.
Multiple Ring Tones
The phone offers seven user-adjustable ring tones.
American Disabilities Act
(ADA) Features
The Hearing-Aid-Compatible (HAC) handset meets the
requirements set by the ADA; it also meets ADA HAC
requirements for a magnetic coupling to approved
hearing aids. The phone dialing pad also complies with
ADA standards.
Signaling Protocol Support
The phones are supported in Cisco Unified
Communications Manager and Cisco Unified
Communications Manager Business Edition Versions
7.1.2 and later using Skinny Client Control Protocol
(SCCP).
Codec support
G.711a, G.711, G.729a, G.729b, and G.729ab audiocompression codecs are supported.
Voice quality
Comfort-noise generation and Voice-Activity-Detection
(VAD) programming is provided on a system basis.
Video Communications
Requires Cisco Unified Video Advantage 2.2 and the
VTIII camera for support.
For additional information, please see the Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921 Data Sheet provided as
Additional Material with this response.
ii.
Advanced model IP telephone
Response:
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G (Figure 17) demonstrates the latest advances in VoIP
telephony, including wideband audio support, backlit color display, and an integrated Gigabit
Ethernet port. It addresses the needs of the executive or major decision maker, administrative
assistants, and those working with bandwidth-intensive applications on collocated PCs. This IP
phone includes a large, backlit, easy-to-read color display (Figure 18) for easy access to
communication information, timesaving applications, and features such as date and time, calling
party name, calling party number, digits dialed, and presence information. It also accommodates
Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications that take advantage of the display. The phone
provides direct access to six telephone lines (or combination of lines, speed dials, and direct
access to telephony features), four interactive soft keys that guide you through call features and
January 31, 2012
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functions, and an intuitive four-way (plus Select key) navigation cluster. A hands-free
speakerphone and handset designed for high-fidelity wideband audio are standard, as is a built-in
headset connection.
Figure 17. Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G
Figure 18. Close-Up of Display and Lighted Line Keys
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G is designed to grow with your organization and
enhancements to your system capabilities. The dynamic feature set allows the phone to keep
pace with your requirements through regular software updates. Firmware changes can be
downloaded from Cisco.com. No hands-on moves and changes are required with the phone-you
can simply pick up the phone and move to a new location anywhere on your network. The Cisco
Unified IP Phone 7965G also provides many accessibility features. Table 8 lists the phone’s
features.
Table 8. Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G Features
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65
Feature
Description/Benefit
Display
5-inch (12.5 cm) graphical TFT color display, 16-bit color depth, 320 x
240 effective pixel resolution, with backlight. Allows for greater flexibility
of features and applications, and significantly expands the information
viewed when using features such as Services, Information, Messages, and
Directory. Display also supports localization requiring double-byte
Unicode encoding for fonts.
Wideband
Audio
Support for wideband (G.722 codec, adherence to TIA 920), including
handset, headset, and speakerphone.
Codec
Support
G.711a, G.711µ, G.729a, G.729ab, G.722, and iLBC audio compression
codecs are supported.
Speakerphone
Full-duplex speakerphone with acoustic echo cancellation.
Messages Key
Provides direct access to voicemail.
Directories
Key
Ready access to missed, received or placed calls (plus intercom history and
directories). Incoming messages are identified and categorized on the
display, allowing users to quickly and effectively return calls using direct
dial-back capability. Corporate directory integrates with the Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol Version 3 (LDAP3) standard directory.
Settings Key
Allows user to adjust display brightness, select background images (if
available), and select ringer sounds through the User Preference menu.
Network Configuration preferences also can be set up (usually by the
system administrator). Configuration can be set up either automatically or
manually for Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP), Trivial File
Transfer Protocol (TFTP), Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and
backup Cisco Unified Communications Manager instances. Other available
Settings submenus include Device Configuration, Security Configuration,
and Model Information.
Services Key
Allows users to quickly access diverse information such as weather,
stocks, quote of the day, or any Web-based information using XML.
Help Button
Online Help gives users information about the phone keys, buttons, and
features.
Speakerphone, Speakerphone includes Speaker On/Off, Microphone Mute, and Headset
Mute, and
buttons that are lit when active. For added security, the audible DTMF
Headset
tones are masked when the speakerphone mode is used.
Buttons
Navigation
Cluster with
`Select'
Button
Four-way navigation cluster allows users to scroll vertically and
horizontally. At the center of the cluster is a ‘Select’ button that can be
used for selection of an in-focus item (for example, to open an underlying
menu).
Display
Button
Indicates when phone is in power-saving sleep/inactivity mode (button is
lit), and can be used to awaken the display. Inactivity period is configured
by the system administrator.
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Feature
Description/Benefit
Ethernet
Switch
Internal 2-port Cisco Ethernet switch allows for a direct connection to a
10/100/1000 BASE-T Ethernet network through an RJ-45 interface with
single LAN connectivity for both the phone and a co-located PC. System
administrator can designate separate VLANs (802.1Q) for the PC and
phone, providing improved security and reliability of voice and data
traffic.
Headset Port
Dedicated headset port eliminates the need for a separate headset amplifier
and allows the handset to remain in its cradle, making headset use simpler.
Both wideband (G.722) and narrowband headsets are supported.
Volume
Control
Provides easy decibel-level adjustments for the speakerphone, handset,
headset, and ringer. The handset is HAC. Additional volume control gain
can be achieved using an inline handset amplifier.
Adjustable
Foot-Stand
Stand is adjustable from flat to 60 degrees to provide optimum display
viewing and comfortable use of all buttons and keys. The foot stand is
keyed to match standard wall-jack configurations for wall mounting.
Optional wall-mount brackets are also offered.
Expansion
Module
Support
An optional add-on module, the Cisco Unified IP Phone Expansion
Module 7914, provides 14 additional buttons for programming directory
numbers or speed dials. Up to two expansion modules may be used.
Multiple Ring
Tones
More than 24 defined user-selectable ring tones are available. Ring tones
may also be personalized through use of the Cisco Unified Phone
Application Suite.
Americans
with
Disabilities
Act (ADA)
Features
Handset is hearing aid-compatible and meets Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) loudness requirements for the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). Section 508 loudness requirements can be
achieved using industry-standard inline handset amplifiers such as Walker
Equipment W-10 or CE-100 amplifiers. Dial pad is also ADA-compliant.
Quality of
Service (QoS)
Options
Supports Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) and 802.1Q/p
standards.
Security
Positive device identity through X.509v3 Certificates, digitally signed
images, cryptographically secure provisioning, and secure signaling and
secure media with AES-128. The phone also contains an 802.1X
supplicant and supports EAPOL pass-through.
Language
Support
Built-in support for more than 30 languages (dependent on Cisco Unified
Communications Manager version).
Configuration
Options
IP address assignment can be statically configured or configured through
the DHCP client.
For additional information, please see the Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G Data Sheet provided as
January 31, 2012
67
iii.
Executive model IP telephone
Response:
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 (Figure 19) is an advanced collaborative media endpoint that
provides voice, video, applications, and accessories. Highlights include interactive multiparty
video, high-resolution color touch screen display, High-Definition (HD) voice, desktop Wi-Fi
connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet and a new ergonomic design and user interface designed for
simplicity and high usability. Accessories, sold separately, include the Cisco Unified Video
Camera and the Cisco Unified IP Color Key Expansion Module.
Figure 19. Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971
Key attributes of the Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 include:





Newly developed ergonomic design and user experience designed specifically for use
with the high-resolution, VGA, graphical, backlit, anti-glare, color touch-screen display
H.264 video support for two-way standard-definition calling with USB support for the
Cisco Unified Video Camera (Note: Multiparty video communications supported with
Multipoint Control Unit)
Choice of 802.11 a/b/g desktop Wi-Fi connectivity or Gigabit Ethernet network
connectivity and switch port available for a downstream PC
Embedded Bluetooth radio and 2 USB ports for added freedom and convenience, with
support for both wireless and wired headsets
Firmware support for XML and MIDlet-enabled applications.
Features and benefits of the Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 are listed in Table 9.
Table 9. Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 Features and Benefits
Feature
Hardware
Benefits
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68
Feature
Benefits
Industrial design
The phone offers a highly usable and intuitive arrangement of
lines, features, and calls. Transfer, Conference, and Hold appear
on hard keys to reduce the number of presented softkeys to a
maximum of four per call state.
Customization
You can order this model in arctic white or charcoal gray.
Handsets are available internationally as slimline (140g) or
standard (170g), and you can mix and match them in your work
environment to enable a feeling of customization and ownership
among your team.
Display
The phone delivers VGA presentation for calling, video calling,
and applications, in addition to a 5.6-inch (14-cm) graphical
TFT color touch-screen display, 24-bit color depth, 640 x 480
effective pixel resolution, and backlighting. The display also
supports localization, requiring double-byte Unicode encoding
for fonts.
Ethernet
An internal 2-port Cisco Ethernet switch allows for a direct
connection to a 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet network through
an RJ-45 interface with single LAN connectivity for both the
phone and a co-located PC. The system administrator can
designate separate VLANs (802.1Q) for the PC and phone,
providing improved security and reliability of voice and data
traffic.
Desktop Wi-Fi Ethernet
As an alternative to wired Ethernet, this model supports an
onboard Wi-Fi radio and antenna that enables connectivity to
Wi-Fi access for greater Return on Investment (ROI) with a
voice-enabled Cisco Unified Wireless Network.
Bluetooth
Mobility is possible for headset users within 10m/30 feet of
their desktop, so you can go to the printer, a colleague’s desk,
or nearby private location while on a call.
USB
Two USB ports increase the usability of call handling and
applications by enabling accessories such as the Cisco Unified
Video Camera, and USB wired headsets.
External audio ports
General-purpose audio-in and audio-out ports enable a relaxed
speakerphone experience over external speakers and the
microphone.
Six lines expanding to
The phone offers many speed dials and programmable features,
114 with 3 key expansion so you can follow the activity of many lines. Up to 200 calls per
modules
device are supported.
Buttons



Six feature buttons with state-indicating LEDs
Six call-session buttons with state-indicating LEDs
Applications, Directories, and Voicemail
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69
Feature
Benefits




Industrial design
Conference, Transfer, and Hold
Volume Up or Down
Back-lit Mute, speakerphone, and headset [[stet caps if
these are actual button names]]
Back, End Call, and 5-way navigation pad [[stet caps if this
is actual button name]]
The phone offers a highly usable and intuitive arrangement of
lines, features, and calls. Transfer, Conference, and Hold appear
on hard keys to reduce the number of presented softkeys to a
maximum of 4 per call state.
Accessories
Cisco Unified IP Color
Key Expansion Module
Available separately, the IP Color Key Expansion Module easy
expansion and advanced use of lines, speed dials, and features.
Cisco Unified Video
Camera
Available separately, the camera enables two-way video calling
between phones or to a media conference unit.
Headset support
Off-the-shelf Bluetooth and USB headsets are supported. You
can use your own Bluetooth headset that you use for your cell
phone or smartphone. HD voice analog headset support is also
provided through a dedicated RJ-9 headset port on the back of
the phone.
Firmware
New user experience
Advanced organization of lines, speed dials and programmable
features separate from call appearances. Great for those who
make few calls per day, and even for those who handle dozens
of calls per hour.
Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP) signaling
SIP interoperation with the call-control and partner applications
enables a rich unified communications experience.
Application support
XML and MIDlet-enabled applications are provided by Cisco
application development partners or customers' own
development staff.
For additional information, please see the Cisco Unified IP Phone 9971 Data Sheet provided as
iv.
Economy model digital TDM telephone
Response:
Cisco is not proposing any digital sets as part of the solution.
v.
Advanced model digital TDM telephone
Response:
January 31, 2012
70
vi.
Executive model digital TDM telephone
Response:
i. Indicate with a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ whether all telephone instruments included in the proposed solution are
manufactured in accordance with the FCC’s hearing aid compatibility technical standards contained in
Section 68-316 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Response:
Yes. The Cisco phones comply with FCC Part 68 (CFR 47) (Hearing Aid Compatibility [HAC])
to support hearing aids that contain tele-coils.
j. Describe the hardware and software components available in the proposed solution that facilitate
connectivity to the PSTN.
Response:
Cisco access gateways enable Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) to
communicate with non-IP telecommunications devices. There are two types of Cisco access
gateways, analog and digital.
There are two categories of Cisco access analog gateways, trunk gateways and station gateways.

Access analog station gateways
 Analog station gateways connect Unified CM to Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)
analog telephones, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, fax machines, and
voice mail systems. Station gateways provide Foreign Exchange Station (FXS) ports.
 Access analog trunk gateways
 Analog trunk gateways connect Unified CM to PSTN Central Office (CO) or PBX
trunks. Trunk gateways provide Foreign Exchange Office (FXO) ports for access to
the PSTN, PBXs, or key systems, and E&M (recEive and transMit, or ear and mouth)
ports for analog trunk connection to a legacy PBX. Whenever possible, use digital
gateways to minimize any answer and disconnect supervision issues. Analog Direct
Inward Dialing (DID) and Centralized Automatic Message Accounting (CAMA) are
also available for PSTN connectivity.
A Cisco access digital trunk gateway connects Unified CM to the PSTN or to a PBX via digital
trunks such as Primary Rate Interface (PRI), Basic Rate Interface (BRI), or T1 Channel
Associated Signaling (CAS). Digital T1 PRI trunks may also be used to connect to certain legacy
voicemail systems.
All gateways in the proposed solution for both analog and digital access are Cisco 2900 or 3900
series ISR routers with appropriate analog or digital interface cards for connectivity into the
PSTN. These gateways all run Cisco IOS with an appropriate voice license. These gateways have
been positioned in each of the existing switching centers and in remote locations.
k. Describe the SIP trunking capabilities of the proposed solution.
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71
Response:
Cisco has positioned the existing digital gateways as Cisco Unified Border Element devices in
order to facilitate SIP Trunking. Cisco Unified Border Element is a feature set that exists on the
voice IOS license allowing for gateways to terminate analog, digital or SIP calls.
Using a SIP trunk for connecting to PSTN and other destinations outside the enterprise involves
an IP-to-IP connection at the edge of the enterprise’s VoIP network. The same functions
traditionally fulfilled by a TDM gateway are still needed at this interconnect point, including
demarcation, call admission control, ensuring QoS, a troubleshooting boundary, security checks,
and so forth. For SIP trunking connections, the Cisco Unified Border Element fulfils these
functions as a Session Border Controller (SBC) at the interconnect point between the enterprise
and the service provider network. Cisco Unified Border Element also performs protocol
translation functions to interconnect H.323 and SIP equipment, or to interconnect SIP equipment
using different variations of SIP implementations. Cisco Unified Border Element can also
perform transcoding. If used for one of these functions, Cisco Unified Border Element may also
be used internal to the enterprise network at interconnect points between equipment that cannot
interoperate without a protocol translation or transcoding service.
The Cisco Unified Border Element is an intelligent, unified communications network border
element. In addition to other Cisco IOS Software features, the Cisco Unified Border Element
includes SBC functions that help enable end-to-end, IP-based transport of voice, video, and data
between independent unified communications networks. SBCs are critical components for
scaling unified communications networks, enabling them to grow from IP islands within a single
customer network to an end-to-end IP community. One of the most significant uses of the Cisco
Unified Border Element is to allow call control elements such as Cisco Unified Communications
Manager to connect to service provider Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks for Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) access offerings, generally known as SIP trunks.
Cisco IOS Software helps enable the simultaneous operation of the following:

Cisco Unified Border Element: An application that terminates and re-originates both
signaling (H.323 and SIP) and media streams (Real-Time Transport Protocol [RTP] and
RTP Control Protocol [RTCP]) while performing border interconnection services
between IP networks.
 Cisco IOS Software H.323 Gatekeeper: An application that acts as the point of control
for a variety of voice and video components that can be attached to an IP network (such
as IP telephony devices, IP-PSTN gateways, H.323 videoconferencing endpoints, and
H.323 multipoint control units) while facilitating build-out of large-scale multimedia
service networks.
 Cisco TDM Gateway: An application that allows Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)
switching between TDM interfaces or TDM-to-IP interfaces.
The Cisco Unified Border Element provides numerous functions and services when
interconnecting IP networks. Generally, these functions can be categorized into four basic types:

Session management, the capability to count and manage the number of sessions flowing
through a router
 Interworking, the capability to interconnect different signaling methods and variants
January 31, 2012
72

Demarcation, the capability to act as a distinct demarcation point between the two
networks
 Security, the capability to act as a Layer 7 device that intelligently allows or disallows
traffic between networks.
The Cisco Unified Border Element supports VoIP protocols such as H.323 and SIP. Video is also
supported for both H.323 and SIP.
l. Describe the E911 capabilities and features of the proposed solution.
Response:
E911 Manager helps to ensure that firemen, police and paramedics have accurate location
information and can find those in distress when responding to emergency calls initiated from a
multi-line telephone system. E911 Manager automatically interfaces to each UCM Cluster on
your network to systematically capture station location information and update the regional ALI
databases in a timely manner.
E911 Manager is a centralized server that interfaces with multiple call servers to capture, manage
and deliver location information for traditional and IP endpoints. The diagram below depicts how
E911 Manager interfaces with multiple switches across the country and multiple regional ALI
database providers.
Figure 20. E911 Manager
E911 Manager provides documented proof that location records were transferred and accepted
into the local ALI database. E911 Manager also logs all other important events including all 911
January 31, 2012
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calls, time of notification of a 911 call, time of acknowledgement of a 911 call. Scheduled tasks
can be created to automatically distribute logs and reports by email.
Figure 21. E911 Manager ALI Data
Automated

Fully automated to ensure every move, add and change is updated in the regional ALI
database.

Optional Emergency On-site Notification (EON) feature notifies on-site security
immediately of the location of a 911 caller to improve internal response times
Reliable

Tasks can be scheduled to occur automatically and personnel can be notified via email to
identify and correct any errors or warnings

E911 Manager updates ALI information with the proper database before the 911 call is
made – completion of the 911 call is not dependent on the E911 Manager server
Scalable

Central administration talks to hundreds of call server/UCM and multiple regional ALI
databases to facilitate continuous ALI updates and database synchronization
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
Location tracking and identification for thousands of traditional and IP end-points is
executed from a single server
Cost Effective

Streamlines processes through automation and scalability

Easily migrated from existing systems to IP telephony or both
Task Scheduler
When properly configured, E911 Manager runs automatically in the background, handling all
necessary tasks, so administrators can focus on other tasks. The Task Scheduler is powerful
feature that allows you to configure E911 Manager to perform routing tasks and notify
administrators that tasks are completed. Administrators can schedule dozens of tasks and reports
as well as set email alarm notifications if tasks cannot e completed.
Reports and Logs
E911 Manager protects the enterprise by logging all E911 location activity, documenting the
enterprise’s honest effort to determine locations and protect employees. E911 Manager’s log
files document all location record activity particularly the transfer of ALI records to the local
RBOC and LEC ALI databases.
Automated ALI Interfaces
E911 Manager features automated interfaces to all RBOC and LEC ALI databases in the USA.
These interfaces allow E911 Manager to perform ALI record updates to the RBOC and LEC ALI
databases automatically, without user intervention. E911 Manager automatically synchronizes
the latest moves, adds and changes to your voice network with the regional ALI database so all
your locations are made available to your local PSAP.
Figure 22. ALI Database
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75
m. Indicate with a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ whether the proposed solution is capable of supporting dialing 911
without an access code.
Response:
Yes.
n. Indicate with a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ whether the proposed solution is CALEA-compliant.
Response:
Yes, our proposed solution supports CALEA compliant.
o. Describe the features and capabilities of the proposed solution related to CALEA compliance.
Response:
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance
TLS Proxy
The Cisco ASA allows for two voice services to be deployed that offer distinct functionality
when deployed in a Cisco Unified Communications in a Cisco environment.
The transparent LAN services (TLS) Proxy allows for firewall services to be implemented in a
Cisco voice environment where encryption is deployed. When deployed in front of Cisco Unified
Communications Manager, the TLS Proxy, proxies TLS and encrypted media traffic between the
Cisco IP phone and Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
This proxy capability allows for inspection of both the signaling and media traffic. In addition,
the firewall can become an insertion port for call recording and Communications Assistance for
Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) compliance.
p. Describe how the proposed solution will, at a minimum, support a common dialing plan, bi-directional
calling number delivery, supervised call transfers, and voice message forwarding with subscribers
serviced from the legacy Siemens/ROLM PBX and PhoneMail systems.
Response:
The proposed solution could integrate into the Siemens/ROLM PBX and PhoneMail
environment in several ways. The final solution will be dependent on agreement between all
parties as to exactly how the migration will take place. At a minimum, the Cisco solution will
use one of the proposed gateways to trunk into the existing ROLM PBX. The proposed solution
can facilitate this integration through a PRI interface or a Q-SIG interface for passing of Calling
Name, Calling Number, and Supervised Call Transfers to voicemail.
The Cisco Communications Manager can use the Calling Search Space and Partitioning
functions described above to facilitate partitioning-off a portion of the dial plan so that the
proposed solution can operate seamlessly as part of the dial plan. The proposed solution can also
serve as a node off the ROLM PBX and an access code can be used as part of the dial plan to
reach users on the system.
q. Describe the hospitality features and capabilities of the proposed solution.
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Response:
The proposed solution does not natively support any specific hospitality features; however, it
does integrate into existing hospitality applications.
r. Describe the capabilities of the proposed solution to support leveraging Virginia Tech’s existing Open
LDAP and Active Directory enterprise directories.
Response:
The proposed solution supports integration into both Open LDAP and Microsoft’s Active
Directory. There are three key elements to the integration. The first element is IP phone access to
directories. The proposed solution supports IP phones accessing either Active Directory or Open
LDAP through an XML interface. This access is specific for access to phone book applications.
The second element is for synchronization of users within a directory with users within the
proposed solution. Synchronization is specifically for keeping usernames and phone numbers
online with a centralized repository so that they will only have to be maintained in one
centralized system.
The third element is integration for purposes of authentication to either Active Directory or Open
LDAP. The proposed solution supports user authentication with either directory services for user
name and password. User PINs for TUI access are still maintained locally to the proposed
solution.
Please refer to the LDAP Directory Integration document provided as Additional Material with
this response. This document details the specific integration points and features of the proposed
solution.
s.
Describe the capabilities of the proposed solution to support leveraging Virginia Tech’s existing
Exchange enterprise messaging system.
Response:
Virginia Tech’s existing Exchange enterprise messaging system can be leveraged with the
proposed Cisco Unity Connection messaging solution in a number of ways.
Integrated Messaging
Integrated Messaging uses IMAP or Secure IMAP (SSL) to allow access from an Outlook client
to voice messages stored on Cisco Unity Connection. This integrated messaging approach allows
users to read, reply, and forward messages. An optional component plug-in for Outlook called
Unity Connection ViewMail allows users to additionally record messages from Outlook.
RSS
Outlook version 2007 and beyond, the RSS functionality can be used to retrieve voice messages.
Calendar and Contacts
Exchange 2007 and beyond, you can integrate Cisco Unity Connection to provide users the
ability to review upcoming meetings by phone and import contacts to be used with personal call
transfer rules and voice dialing.
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Connect Directly to the Experts at Cisco TAC
Cisco SMARTnet Service connects you directly to the Cisco TAC, staffed by Cisco
professionals certified in a broad range of Cisco foundational and advanced technologies (see
Table 12). The Cisco TAC employs a sophisticated system that automatically routes your service
request to the appropriate technology team and automatically escalates your case to the next level
of support if it is not resolved within a specified timeframe.
The Cisco TAC is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year around the world, with support
available in local languages. If your assigned TAC engineer changes for any reason before your
service request is resolved, a personal handoff is completed between all parties to provide service
continuity through issue resolution. You can interact with Cisco TAC engineers in a way that is
most convenient and useful for you, including email, telephone, Web-based collaboration, and
even a state-of-art, face-to-face discussion using Cisco WebEx collaboration. Live chat is ready
to help you through a service request submission, and online video collaboration is the perfect
option for a virtual troubleshooting session.
To confirm the right remediation action, Cisco engineers can test solutions in a laboratory
environment that simulates your network. These simulation labs are equipped with Cisco device
and technology solutions so that an engineer can accurately mirror a customer IT configuration
to make sure a proposed solution will solve your problem. Throughout a TAC engagement, the
goal of every Cisco engineer is to use the best resources at hand to solve your issues and
empower your staff through active knowledge transfer.
Table 12. Cisco Technical Assistance Center
Technical Support
Number of CCIE Certified TAC
Engineers

1,590
Average Experience

5 to 10 years experience in customer
solutions, including MPLS core, VPN
applications, metro Ethernet, security,
broadband triple play, and video
Number of Global Service Requests

2,700+ daily (1,000,000 per year)
Global TAC Locations

Four 24-hour support locations in San Jose,
California, USA; Raleigh, North Carolina,
USA; Brussels, Belgium; and Sydney,
Australia
Satellite sites in China, Japan, Korea, Brazil,
Mexico, and the USA
Outsourced TAC locations include: Amman,
Jordan; Budapest, Hungary; Haryana, India;
Manila, Philippines; Mexico City, Mexico;
and San Jose, Costa Rica


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Cisco TAC consistently receives high customer satisfaction ratings, as well as industry
recognition and awards. Cisco technical service is consistently ranked among the best by
independent surveys and analysts, including the Walker Survey and the Yankee Group.
Table 13 shows TAC certifications and awards.
Table 13. Industry-Recognized High-Quality Technical Service
Awards
2008 STAR Award for Best Practices
Cisco Services earned two STAR Awards for Best Practices in
2008, sponsored by the Service and Support Professionals
Association (SSPA). These awards for Best Practices recognize
companies for developing, implementing, and benchmarking
the most innovative and efficient processes for service and
support delivery. Cisco was awarded in both the Service
Delivery Optimization category for its best practices in the
Cisco Technical Assistance Center service technology
development and support delivery methodology and the
Customer Commitment category for the Cisco TAC customer
feedback process that allows Cisco to implement tangible
changes in support practices to directly improve the customer
experience.
VARBusiness Annual Report Card
Cisco rates highest in “post-sales support” and “quality of tech
support” in the areas of Security Appliances, Security Software,
and Voice over IP (VoIP) in their 2006 VARBusiness Annual
Report Card.
Kepner-Tregoe
Cisco Technical Services, Asia Pacific team has been awarded
with a 2006 Kepner-Tregoe (KT) International Rational Process
Achievement Award for Organizational Use of Process. Their
winning entry chronicled how KT processes have been
embedded in the organization, exceeding targeted goals.
d.
Describe the remote monitoring, diagnostic, and problem resolution applications, resources, and
technology available to support the proposed solution.
Response:
Cisco Unified Communications Manager provides a rich feature set for monitoring, diagnostic,
and problem resolution.
Monitoring:


Performance-monitoring SNMP statistics from applications to SNMP manager or to
operating system performance monitor.
Real-Time trace monitoring.
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

Analysis Manager: Analysis Manager is a feature of the Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Real-Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT) that allows RTMT to provide solution-level
diagnostic features for other Cisco Unified Communications applications.
All system management activities – for example, disk-space monitoring, system monitoring,
and upgrades – are controlled through the GUI. Because onboard agents are no longer
supported on the appliance, all Cisco Unified Communications Manager management
interfaces are enhanced to allow tight integration with third-party applications.
Administration and debug utilities:










Prepackaged alerts, monitor views, and historical reports with RTMT
Real-time and historical application performance monitoring through operating system
tools and SNMP
Monitored data-collection service
Remote terminal service for off-net system monitoring and alerting
Real-time event monitoring and presentation to common syslog
Trace setting and collection utility
Browse to onboard device statistics
Cluster wide trace-setting tool
Trace collection tool
SNMP is available to manage Cisco Unified Communications Manager, allowing
managers to set and report traps on conditions that could affect service and send them to
remote-monitoring systems.
Cisco Unified Serviceability
Cisco Unified Serviceability, an included Web-based troubleshooting tool, provides the







Saves alarms and events for troubleshooting and provides alarm message definitions.
Saves trace information to various log files for troubleshooting.
Monitors real-time behavior of components through the Cisco Unified Real-Time
Monitoring Tool (RTMT).
Generates Cisco Unified Communications Manager reports for Quality of Service,
traffic, and billing information through Cisco Unified Communications Manager CDR
Analysis and Reporting (CAR).
Provides audit capability by logging any configuration changes to the Cisco Unified
Communications Manager system by a user or as a result of the user action. This
functionality supports the Information Assurance feature of Cisco Unified
Communications Manager.
Provides feature services that you can activate, deactivate, and view through the Service
Activation window.
Provides an interface for starting and stopping feature and network services.
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



Generates and archives daily reports; for example, alert summary or server statistic
reports.
Allows Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection to work as
a managed device for SNMP remote management and troubleshooting.
Monitors the disk usage of the log partition on a server.
Monitors the number of threads and processes in the system; uses cache to enhance the
performance of Cisco Unified Serviceability.
Quality Report Tool
The Quality Report Tool (QRT), a voice-quality and general problem-reporting tool for Cisco
Unified IP Phones, acts as a service that allows users to easily and accurately report audio and
other general problems with their IP phone. QRT automatically loads with the Cisco Unified
Communications Manager installation. As system administrator, you can enable QRT
functionality by creating, configuring, and assigning a softkey template to associate the QRT
softkey on a user IP phone. You can then create, customize, and view phone problem reports by
using the QRT Viewer application.
Cisco Unified Analysis Manager
The Cisco Unified Analysis Manager, a tool included with the Cisco Unified Real-Time
Monitoring Tool (RTMT), is used to perform troubleshooting operations. When the Unified
Analysis Manager is launched, it collects troubleshooting information from your system and
provides an analysis of that information. You can use this information to perform your own
troubleshooting operation or to send the information to Cisco Technical Assistance for analysis.
The Analysis Manager application is installed as an option when you install the RTMT software.
The Analysis Manager interface is accessed from the RTMT main menu and quick launch
channel.
Once it is installed, the application can identify the supported UC products and applications that
you have in your system and troubleshoot call failures across these UC applications, collecting
trace and log files.
The Unified Analysis Manager will support the following products:






Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise
Cisco IOS Voice Gateways
Cisco Unified Presence.
The three primary components of the Unified Analysis Manager interface are the following:


Administration — The system component lets you import device and group
configuration from an external file and provide a status of jobs run by the Unified
Analysis Manager.
Inventory — The inventory component is used to identify all of the devices in your
system that can be accessed and analyzed by the Unified Analysis Manager.
January 31, 2012
81

Tools — The tools component contains all of the functions that Unified Analysis
Manager supports. This includes configuring traces settings, collecting logs, and viewing
configurations.
e.
Describe the regional field service organization available to provide on-site support for major
system failures or disasters.
Response:
DISYS Solutions Onsite Engineer
Support from DISYS Solutions Headquarters
DISYS Solutions provides remote support from its Headquarters based in Chantilly, VA from
8am-6pm EST Monday to Friday. Telephone support of a Service Engineer is available
24x7x365. These engineering resources coordinate with Cisco and onsite DISYS Solutions
resources for problem resolutions within the SLAs.
Cisco Onsite Service Support (for critical components only)
DISYS Solutions provides on-site support services for critical system failures within four hours.
This support is provided through Cisco’s SMARTnet offering provided in the Bill of Materials
(BOM). Although Cisco will be providing the 4 hour onsite response, DISYS Solutions keeps a
very close eye to make sure that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met by Cisco.
Cisco SMARTnet offerings provide 24x7x365 remote support. This support is included in our
BOM. Your account team is well knowledged in SMARTnet replacement options and will assist
in selecting the different types of hardware replacement options. Post award we will assist
Virginia Tech in accessing Cisco’s TAC center. Although Cisco will be providing the 24x7x365
remote support, DISYS Solutions keeps a very close eye to make sure that Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) are met by Cisco.
The following paragraphs outline the processes for Cisco TAC engagement.
Submit a Cisco Service Request


S1 or S2 Service Requests: for S1 or S2 issues, or if you do not have Internet access for S3
and S4 issues, contact the Cisco TAC by telephone to submit your service requests.
S3 or S4 Service Requests: use the online Cisco TAC Service Request Tool to quickly
submit S3 and S4 service requests:www.cisco.com/techsupport/servicerequest (registered
Cisco.com users with valid service contracts).
Three Ways to Get Support



Online: www.cisco.com/techsupport/servicerequest
Phone Support: For a list of global contact numbers, go to:
•www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_cisco_worldwide_contacts.html.
Creating a Service Request Using the TAC Service Request Tool
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The fastest way to create S3 and S4 service requests and submit them to the TAC is to use the
online TAC Service Request Tool.
What you will need:





Your Cisco Service Contract Number
Product Serial Number and Chassis Serial Number
Product Model Number and its hardware configuration
Physical location of the product
Severity Level of the Issue (see definitions provided previously).
The following information will help expedite your case:






Meaningful case title stating the problem accurately
History of the problem
Network topology and explanation
Output from “show tech” command (if applicable) and all other relevant output
Software versions and types of equipment
Relevant syslog/tacac logs before the issue occurred.
Follow these steps:





Go to www.cisco.com/techsupport/servicerequest.
Describe your issue.
After you describe your issue, the TAC Service Request Tool will recommend resources
for an immediate solution.
If your issue is not resolved using these automatic solutions, your service request will be
assigned to a Cisco TAC engineer.
At the bottom of the Query screen, you may leave case notes. Please document relevant
case events such as business impact, even if they are not purely technical in nature.
Status of Cisco Service Requests
You can use the online Cisco TAC Service Request Tool to track progress or to update your
service requests with notes and attached files. www.cisco.com/techsupport/servicerequest
Status notations include the following:





Customer Updated: A service request has been updated using the Cisco TAC Service
Request Tool.
Customer Requested Closure: You requested that the service request be closed.
Cisco Pending: Your Cisco TAC engineer is currently investigating the issue. No
workaround has been identified at this time.
Close Pending: Your Cisco TAC engineer has provided you with a solution that will
solve your issue. Contact the assigned engineer if the problem has not been solved.
Customer Pending: Your Cisco TAC engineer has requested information from you and
is waiting for your response. No workaround has been identified.
January 31, 2012
83


Release Pending: Cisco Development Engineering is reviewing the issue for a code fix
that would resolve the issue; however, the software release with the fix is not yet
available.
Service Order Pending: Your Cisco TAC engineer has sent you a hardware
replacement.
g.
Describe the procedures, processes, and personnel available to support the escalation of
problems reported to the service organization.
Response:
The following escalation takes place from the time a ticket is created:
 A case is opened with problem description entered into a problem resolution database,
and assigned to DISYS Solutions Phone Duty technician (Level 3 Expertise, see
definitions below).
 Discuss and set priorities with customer in accordance with DISYS Solutions priority
guidelines (Defined below in the priority level section).
 For in warranty items, DISYS Solutions will co-ordinate with the manufacturer on behalf
of the customer to deliver support conforming to the service level agreements.
 Assign to available Network Engineer, based on type of problem and severity.
 Problem isolation and diagnosis with DISYS Solutions Network Engineer (Level of
Expertise based on type of problem) call back, on-site visit (if necessary).
 Problem escalation to higher level (Defined below in escalation section).
 Test and ensure customer satisfaction regarding fix provided.
 Quality control check performed by customer service representative, to insure highest
level of customer satisfaction after a call is completed.
We have four levels of response times as listed below. Once a service requests is entered into
the Sage CRM, a priority level is assigned, depending on issue.
Priority 1
prohibits production. These calls must be acknowledged within 15 minutes and resolved
within 2 - 4 hours.
Priority 2
P2 trouble calls are defined as a small-scale system outage affecting some employees
and not the entire department or the enterprise. These calls must be acknowledged
within 30 minutes and resolved within 8 hours. Department heads receive a one level
escalation for trouble calls.
Priority 3
must be acknowledged within 2 working hours and resolved within 2 working days.
Priority 4
P4 trouble calls are defined as scheduled work that needs to be preformed. These calls
must be acknowledged within 8 working hours and resolved within 2 weeks. An example
of a priority 4 call is when DISYS Solutions replaces a broken printer with a loaner printer
January 31, 2012
84
and we give the user back the fixed printer when the repair is complete.
Table 15. Priority Level chart
Duration Since Call
0 – 15 minutes
1 hour
2 hours
4 - 6 hours
8 hours
24 hours
Personnel Involved in Escalation Notification
DISYS Solutions Phone Duty Technician (Level 1 or 2 Expertise) and
Manufacturer Call Center Service Technician
DISYS Solutions Lead Technician (Level 3 or 4 Expertise) and Manufacturer
Service Manager
DISYS Solutions IT Manager and Manufacturer Operations Manager
DISYS Solutions Director of Operations and Manufacturer Vice President of
Technical Support
DISYS Solutions COO
Virginia Tech Contracting Officer, DISYS Solutions CEO, and Manufacturer
President of Technical Support, and Manufacturer Local Channel Account
Manager
Table 16. Example of Priority Level escalation
Escalation List:
Trouble escalation procedures names, titles, and contact information are provided below.
Elapsed
Time
1 hour
Name
Title
Senior Network Engineer
2 hours
4 hours
Sivakumar
Mahalingam
Lenu Philip
Vijay Soni
8 hours
Vinu Luthra
DISYS Solutions IT Manager
DISYS Solutions Director of
Operations
DISYS Solutions COO
24 hours
Atul Bhatia
DISYS Solutions CEO
Contact
Phone: (888-286-3896)
Sivakumar.Mahalingam
@disyssolutions.com
Lenu.philip@ disyssolutions.com
Vijay.Soni@ disyssolutions.com
Vinu.Luthra@ disyssolutions.com
Atul.Bhatia@ disyssolutions.com
Table 17. Escalation chart
Escalation
If you feel that progress on your service request or the quality of Cisco Services is not
satisfactory, Cisco encourages you to escalate the service request. You can do this by contacting
the TAC and asking for the TAC duty manager. The phone numbers to contact your local Cisco
TAC are available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_cisco_worldwide_contacts.html.
As part of ISO standards for escalation process workflow, email alerts are generated by the TAC
trouble ticketing system, notifying the individuals listed in Table 18 if no activity (update or
status change) is recorded against a service request for the following periods. Severity 1 alert
times are measured in calendar hours — 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Severity 2 alert
times corresponds with standard business hours.
Table 18. Automatic Email Alert Escalations for Cisco TAC Service Requests
Severity 1
Network Down
1 Hour
Severity 2
Severe Impact
TAC Manager
January 31, 2012
85
4 Hours
TAC Director
TAC Manager
24 Hours
VP Customer Advocacy
TAC Director
48 Hours
President
VP Customer Advocacy
96 Hours
President
TAC Response
The Cisco TAC model (as depicted in Figure 11) drives faster and better solutions by allocating
Service Requests (SRs), or TAC cases on the basis of customer needs, time-based escalations,
and improved customer differentiation. Cisco Systems Engineers (CSEs) or TAC engineers
operate in well-defined technologist, specialist, and expert roles that are mutually supportive.
The model also recognizes that a specific process should be used to handle High Complexity
Low Volume (HCLV) SRs.
Figure 26. Cisco TAC SR Distribution Model
h.
Provide an electronic copy, on either a flash drive or CD/DVD, of all product support
documentation applicable to the hardware and software components included in the proposed solution.
Response:
All support documentation is provided in the accompanying cd.
i.
Provide an electronic copy, on either a flash drive or CD/DVD, of user guides for all telephone
instruments and soft client applications included in the proposed solution.
Response:
All user guides are provided in the accompanying cd.
January 31, 2012
86
j.
Describe the software upgrade programs included with the proposed solution to ensure
accessibility to the most recent software release for all components and applications included in the
proposed solution.
Response:
Cisco SMARTnet Service also entitles Virginia Tech to online access to the latest operating
system software updates and upgrades. Rather than purchasing OS software upgrades
individually, a SMARTnet support contract saves Virginia Tech time and money by covering the
cost of updates, bug fixes, and upgrades for your licensed feature set. These upgrades enhance
your existing equipment with the latest features such as advanced security, regulatory
compliance, and greater network capacity, potentially adding years of service and improved
performance to your network. Software Application Support (SAS), Software Application
Support plus Upgrades (SASU), and Unified Communications Essential Operate Service costeffectively provide timely, uninterrupted access to application software updates and extensive
technical support resources to help you keep your network available and secure. For more
information, please visit: Cisco Application Support
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/svcs/ps3034/ps2827/ps2993/serv_group_home.html.
k.
Provide a detailed description of the system administration training courses included in the
proposal to prepare Virginia Tech’s operations support personnel to conduct installation, system
administration, and maintenance. Identify any prerequisite requirements to participate in the training.
Response:
Please refer to response # 33.
l.
Describe any applicable vendor certification programs.
Response:
Cisco offers four levels of general IT certification: Entry, Associate, Professional, and Expert
(CCIE representing the highest level of achievement).
CCENT Certification
Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) validates the ability to install, operate,
and troubleshoot a small enterprise branch network, including basic network security. With a
CCENT, a network professional demonstrates the skills required for entry-level network support
position – the starting point for many successful careers in networking. The curriculum covers
networking fundamentals, WAN technologies, basic security and wireless concepts, routing and
switching fundamentals, and configuring simple networks. CCENT is the first step toward
achieving Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), which covers medium-size enterprise
branch networks with more complex connections.
CCNA Certification
CCNA validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size route and
switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a
WAN. CCNA curriculum includes basic mitigation of security threats, introduction to wireless
networking concepts and terminology, and performance-based skills. This new curriculum also
includes (but is not limited to) the use of these protocols: IP, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing
January 31, 2012
87
Protocol (EIGRP), Serial Line Interface Protocol Frame Relay, Routing Information Protocol
Version 2 (RIPv2), VLANs, Ethernet, Access Control Lists (ACLs).
CCIP Certification
Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional (CCIP) validates advanced knowledge and skills
required to manage service provider infrastructures. With a CCIP certification, a network
professional working in a service provider organization demonstrates competencies in
infrastructure IP networking solutions. The CCIP curriculum includes IP routing, IP Quality of
Service (QoS), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).
CCIE Certification
The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification is accepted worldwide as the most
prestigious networking certification in the industry. Network engineers holding an active Cisco
CCIE certification are recognized for their expert network engineering skills and mastery of
Cisco products and solutions. The CCIE community has established a reputation of leading the
networking industry in deep technical networking knowledge and members are deployed into the
most technically challenging network assignments.
The program continually updates and revises its testing tools and methodologies to ensure
unparalleled program quality, relevance, and value. Through a rigorous written exam and a
performance-based lab, the CCIE program sets the standard for internetworking expertise.
Cisco introduced the CCIE certification in 1993 to assist the industry in distinguishing the top
echelon of internetworking experts worldwide. Today, CCIE certification holders represent less
than 3 percent of all certified Cisco professionals and less than 1 percent of the networking
professionals worldwide.
m.
Provide a detailed description of the attendant console training included in the proposal to
prepare Virginia Tech’s attendant console operators to fully realize the utility provided by the solution’s
attendant console features.
Response:
Please see response #33.
n.
Provide a detailed description of the end user training included in the proposal to prepare
Virginia Tech’s end users to fully realize the utility provided by the solution’s telephony,
messaging, and collaboration features.
Response:
Course Objectives
Learn how to use basic features on Cisco IP phones to place calls, answer calls, transfer and
forward calls
Learn how to use more advanced features which will make you more productive such as quickly
setting up ad-hoc conference calls or forwarding your calls to mobile or home phones.
Learn how to access voice mail from your Cisco IP phone.
Learn how to use information services now available to you such as missed calls or accessing the
corporate directory.
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88
Learn how to tailor your phone to your needs such as changing ring sound, adjusting the LCD
display, adjusting handset and speaker volume.
Learn how to maximize the use of your IP telephony solution by using your web browser to
forward you calls when outside the offices as well as setting up speed dial numbers easily.
Course Outline
1.










Basic User Features
Connecting Your Cisco IP Phone to the Corporate Network
Adjusting the Footstand
Placing a Call
Answering a Call
Ending a Call
Stabilizing the Handset
Transferring a Call
Putting a Call on Hold
Redialing a Number
Using Call Park






Advanced User Features
Forwarding All Calls
Placing a Conference Call
Initiating a Meet-Me Conference
Joining a Meet-Me Conference
Using Call Pickup
Using Group Call Pickup







Information Features
Accessing Online Help
Using Call History
Changing the LCD Contrast
Setting Up Voice Mail
Accessing Voice Mail
Using a Corporate Directory
Viewing Information Services




Audio Features
Changing the Ringer Sound
Adjusting the Ringer Volume
Adjusting the Handset, Speaker, and Headset Volume
Muting a Call


Web Browser Features
Forwarding All Calls from the Web
Configuring Speed Dial Buttons
2.
3.
4.
5.
January 31, 2012
89


o.
Subscribing to Information Services
Changing Your Subscriptions
Provide detailed warranty information for all equipment included in the proposed solution.
Response:
Warranties provide short-term limited liability for Cisco to repair and/or replace defects in Cisco
products. They are limited in both the duration and the support they offer, and warranties do not
include Cisco TAC support, software updates, or any of the additional benefits obtained under a
support service contract, as illustrated in Table 19. It is the responsibility of Cisco to repair
and/or replace the Cisco product within the timeframe specified in the warranty card that
accompanied the originally purchased Cisco product. Elements covered under a Cisco warranty
are:


Hardware: This guarantees that the piece of hardware will be free of defects in material
and workmanship under normal use, or it will be replaced by Cisco.
Software: This guarantees that the physical media are free from defects or they will be
replaced by Cisco. Also, the warranty guarantees that the software generally conforms to
the published specifications for the product. The warranty is explicitly “as is,” and no
new releases are included.
Your formal Warranty Statement, including the warranty applicable to Cisco software, appears in
the Cisco Information Packet that accompanies your Cisco product. A copy of this Information
Packet has been included as Additional Material with this response.
Table 19. Warranty Support vs. SMARTnet Support
Available Support
SMARTnet
SMARTnet
Onsite
90-Day
Warranty
1-Year
Warranty
5-Year Warranty (Optical
Products Only)
Maintenance releases for
operation system software
(upon request)
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Minor and major releases
for operation system
software (upon request)
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Cisco.com registered
access (where available)
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
TAC support
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
24-hour access to TAC
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Advanced Replacement of
parts
8x5xNBD
8x5x4
24x7x4
24x7x2
Yes
Yes
10 days
10 days
15 days
Onsite field engineer for
parts replacement and
installation
No
Yes
No
No
No
Cisco SMARTnet Service is an award-winning technical support service that offers direct,
anytime access to Cisco engineers and an extensive range of technical resources. SMARTnet
January 31, 2012
90
delivers rapid issue resolution, flexible device-by-device coverage, and premium service options
to help maximize operational efficiency.
The following replacement service-level options are available on Cisco SMARTnet Service:

Next Business Day (NBD): Advanced replacement parts, with or without a field engineer,
are delivered the next business day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (provided the request is
received before 3 p.m. local depot time).

8x5x4: Advanced replacement parts, with or without a field engineer, are delivered
within 4 hours of determining that part replacement is required during a standard work
week (8 hours per day, 5 days per week).



Return for Repair (RfR): Customer returns failed hardware to Cisco for repair. Cisco will
use commercially reasonable efforts to repair failed hardware and ship hardware to
customer within 30 days from receipt of failed hardware.

Equivalent onsite service options are available that provide a trained field engineer to
install the replacement part when it arrives at your site.
Case Studies
Cisco does not release client information into the public arena in order to protect client data.
Your Cisco Account Manager can arrange for a meeting with the customer if the College so
desires. Customer Case Studies have been provided in the paragraphs that follow.
Brandeis University
Challenge
Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis University is a highly
ranked private university with strong research, sciences, and social
policy programs and an undergraduate enrollment of 3200. The
university needed to overhaul its communications system for several
reasons. The existing copper wiring, some of it as old as the
university, was failing. The aging PBX system needed replacement.
In addition, the existing system lacked sufficient capacity for a new dormitory.
The university IT group wanted a new communications solution that would deliver a superior
experience to students, parents, faculty, and staff. For example, anxious parents and students who
call Student Financial Services prefer to reach a live person right away rather than navigating
through menus. Campus safety requires the ability to alert students and employees anywhere on
campus if an incident occurs. And IT also sought a way to help faculty members who have issues
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with classroom technology or the online grading system and might need to reach the help desk
early in the morning or very late at night.
After investigating new PBX systems, the IT department realized that it could capitalize on its
new Cisco network for voice and video, as well as data. “Using our new network as the platform
for unified communications would increase our return on investment and also give us new
capabilities,” says John Turner, director of networks and systems, Brandeis University. “A
unified communications solution would also avoid the high costs of replacing our copper
telephone network.”
Solution
Brandeis installed a Cisco Unified Communications Manager server on its main campus in
Waltham and a Cisco Integrated Services Router with Unified Communications Manager
Express in the New York City alumni house. Students receive a Cisco Unified IP Phone the first
day they arrive on campus and keep it until they graduate. The IT group wrote an application for
the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that automatically adds new students to the
Cisco Unified Communications Manager system, a feat made possible because of the open
interfaces in Cisco Unified Communications, according to Turner. This eliminates the $25,000
annually that the university used to pay a service provider to provision phones.
The availability of the communications system is critical in a university environment, and
Brandeis uses a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking service from Zone Telecom for costeffective backup. “Using a SIP trunk instead of a Private Rate Interface (PRI) line for backup
reduced our costs by $18,000 annually because the service provider does not have to provide a
local loop,” says Turner.
In the summer of 2007, Brandeis upgraded its IP network, adding Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches
in regional points of presence and Cisco routers in each building. The IT group also consolidated
its data center infrastructure by deploying Cisco Firewall Service Modules (FWSMs) and Cisco
Application Control Engine (ACE) modules. These modules, which fit right into Cisco Catalyst
6500 Series Switches, provide load balancing and application security to increase performance
and availability. Each Cisco ACE module can act like multiple virtual modules, reducing the
number of devices that the IT department must purchase and manage, as well as data center
space and power requirements.
Results
The Cisco solution has had a dramatic impact throughout the campus:

Students use their Cisco Unified IP Phones for work and play, taking advantage of five-digit
dialing, transfers, conferencing, and call parking. One student even wrote a wake-up call
application.

Callers to the campus help desk also enjoy faster service. Using Cisco Unified Contact
Center Enterprise, the IT group easily merged its previously separate faculty help desk,
student help desk, and library services into a unified Library and Technology Services
contact center. Each contact center is staffed at different hours, so callers can reach a live
person any time from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The fact that faculty can get faster answers to questions about classroom technology
improves educational excellence. “Some classes meet only 10 times a semester, so if we can
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92
help a professor who is having problems with classroom technology, we have just saved 10
percent of the course content,” says Turner.

The university IT group wrote a time-clock application for Cisco Unified IP Phones that
improves job satisfaction for hourly employees and saves time for managers. Rather than
walking up to 15 minutes to a time-clock location on campus, employees can clock in and
out by logging into a Cisco Unified IP Phone near their reporting location. “Managers used to
spend one full day each week calculating their employees’ hours,” says Turner. “Now they
just need an hour, using a time-clock application on the Cisco Unified IP Phone that ties into
our enterprise time-and-attendance application.”

Student safety is of paramount importance to the university, and Brandeis also uses Cisco
Unified Communications for campus-wide Public Address (PA) announcements.
Administrators use Singlewire InformaCast software to send emergency announcements to
the built-in speakers of the Cisco Unified IP Phones in every office, public area, and dorm
room. The IT group had the solution up and running in less than 2 hours and saved hundreds
of thousands of dollars for a separate network.
Now that the Cisco Unified Communications platform is in place, Brandeis is considering
additional plans to use it for other applications that increase efficiency and improve the
experience for students, parents, and faculty. “More than a telephone system, Cisco
Unified Communications is a complete communications platform that also supports richmedia conferencing, video, and more,” says Turner. “It supports our current needs and
also gives us flexibility to add new capabilities in the future.”
Madison Area Technical College
Challenge
To achieve a 21st century standard of learning, Madison Area Technical
College realized that it needed to provide a variety of advanced
communications services to its students and enhance its popular distance
learning program. By deploying key technologies across its campuses,
the college is linking its past record of commitment to student learning
with a determination to prepare them for the future by equipping them
with skills needed in our evolving, globalized world.
The college’s decision to pursue a more sophisticated communications technology was based on
the institution’s competition, not just from other schools, but from factors that affect students’
time and attention span. Today’s youth use increasingly sophisticated technology in their daily
lives: iPods, smartphones, PDAs, Web-based collaboration and social networking technologies,
high-definition television, etc. College officials recognized that students have grown accustomed
to a high level of quality, as well as variety, in their learning and communication methods and
expect it to be matched in every area of their lives, particularly from a technical education.
“Accessibility to instruction was once enough of an offset that the technology didn’t have to be
perfect,” says Roger Price, vice president of infrastructure services for Madison Area Technical
College. “That’s no longer the case. Technology matters immensely in how we deliver our
education to our students and communicate our value to prospective students.”
Solution
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93
Cisco Unified Communications was integrated to enhance overall communication throughout the
college, including a platform to deliver superior customer service and collaboration opportunities
to students, faculty, and staff. In addition, Madison Area Technical College deployed Cisco
TelePresence to create a live communication experience for distance learning over the network,
giving access to capabilities unmatched by any other technical college in the country.
The college turned to Cisco, and partner Inacom Information Systems, for a Unified
Communications platform and in particular Cisco TelePresence because it offers an innovative
solution for distance learning, creating an “in-person” classroom experience over a converged
network. As a first-of-its-kind deployment for community colleges, the new Cisco TelePresence
positions Madison Area Technical College as a leader in its use of technology to enhance the
quality of education for students.
By providing this advanced technology to its students, Madison Area Technical College is
further supporting its mission to “deliver high-quality instruction and services that are
responsive, flexible, and accessible.”
Results
The Cisco technology deployed at Madison Area Technical College gives the college an
advantage over other area schools. The college faces competition from a variety of other higher
education institutions, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ITT, the University of
Phoenix, and Herzing College, among others. However, with the opportunities provided by Cisco
Unified Communications and Cisco TelePresence, Madison Area Technical College will be able
to offer students educational services not available at the other schools.
“There is no one else doing what we are trying to do right now, using this tool with a primarily
academic focus,” says Price. “It’s a cool education tool; it’s a cool collaboration tool. Plus, it
expands our educational opportunities. There are people out there who would love to get an
MATC education, but they just haven’t been able to reach us. Now they can.”
Also, Cisco Unified Communications and TelePresence are “green technologies,” which save the
college money in a number of other areas. Faculty, staff, and students will have unprecedented
ability to communicate, collaborate, and learn without regard to location. Travel expense is
reduced, even as the number of student-faculty and student-student interactions increases,
delivering a much more robust learning experience. The project timeline and financing were also
structured to maximize efficiency in procurement and deployment of that technology. In a tough
economic climate, Madison Area Technical College put in place new technologies that were cost
effective and demonstrated a responsible budgetary decision.
“During the last few years, we have approached enrollment with the desire to grow,” says
Bettsey Barhorst, president of Madison Area Technical College. “In fact, 2 years ago, we grew
some 5 to 6 percent. Last year we dipped a bit, though we aim to maintain a healthy 2 percent a
year, capturing what we feel are untapped groups of students who are going elsewhere at a
premium cost.”
By reaching out to serve larger groups, Madison Area Technical College strives to provide an
advanced technical education as a way to help people enhance their personal skills and
knowledge base, a goal that will improve the quality of life of those in the Madison area in a time
of economic uncertainty.
January 31, 2012
94
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Challenge
One of the fastest growing campuses in the University of
North Carolina system, University of North Carolina
(UNC) at Charlotte enrolls more than 23,300 students and
1000 full-time faculty and staff. The university expects to
add 7000 students and 150 faculty members by 2012.
To prepare for growth, the UNC Charlotte IT group needed to upgrade its communications
system and data center. The previous PBX system could not scale to support 11 new planned
buildings and had become expensive to maintain. “We also wanted to improve the
communications experience for faculty, staff, students, and parents,” says Tom Lamb, chief
technology officer for the university.
At the beginning of each semester, the university receives approximately 8000 weekly calls
regarding financial aid, account status, and class registration. The old PBX could not handle the
volume, resulting in busy signals and dropped calls. Callers who do not get through often hang
up after becoming frustrated with long wait times or the inability to reach a live person.
“Improving our service to callers was a priority for the vice chancellor, who was receiving
complaints from parents,” Lamb says.
Solution
UNC Charlotte prepared for growth by migrating from its old PBX system to Cisco Unified
Communications. The university deployed Cisco Unified Communications in six buildings in
2005 and began converting the remaining 39 buildings in 2007. “We chose Cisco Unified
Communications not only for what it does today, but also for the flexibility that it gives us to
introduce new communications services as our needs change,” says Lamb. For example, Cisco
Unified Communications Manager supports Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which will enable
the IT group to provide university voice, voicemail, and other communications services to
employees’ homes, thus supporting remote workers.
Faculty and staff now have more flexibility to connect, communicate, and collaborate from any
location. They use either Cisco Unified IP Phones or laptops with Cisco Unified Personal
Communicator, a desktop application that integrates voice, instant messaging, presence, voice
message access, click-to-call, video, conferencing, user directory, and call history. A single
Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing agreement provides access to all of these applications,
simplifying management and administration. With Cisco Unified Personal Communicator,
mobile employees can just bring their laptops wherever they go on campus to make and receive
calls with their usual extension.
Several campus offices use Cisco Unified Personal Communicator to speed up decision-making.
“An administrator who needs an immediate answer to a question can look at experts’ presence
information to see who is available right now, saving the time to call multiple people and leave
voicemails,” says Lamb. “And if we see that someone is on the phone, we can just send an
instant message without even having to open another application.”
The university’s contact centers (the IT help desk, financial aid, graduate admissions, student
accounts, and registrar’s office) use Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, which has
January 31, 2012
95
transformed call handling to improve the caller experience. Skills-based routing directs calls to a
qualified agent in any location, making it faster for students, parents, or employees to reach a
live person. The contact center director can now view real-time metrics and, if needed, add new
agents in any campus location to help ensure that callers receive prompt service.
Results
The university provided its best-ever service to callers as the fall 2008 semester began:



Decreased average wait time from 1 minute 32 seconds to 54 seconds for calls regarding
undergraduate admissions
Handled 1200 more calls about financial aid with only a 20-second increase in average
wait time
Increased answer rate from 82.3 percent to 93.4 percent for calls about graduate
admissions while handling 25 percent more calls.
“The vice chancellor is no longer receiving complaints from parents,” Lamb says.
The ability to see colleagues’ presence information, whether they are available and how they
prefer to be reached, speeds up collaboration. Mobile employees are now easier to reach because
the Cisco Unified Mobility single-number reach feature simultaneously rings their desktop
phones and mobile phone when their main office number is dialed. “It’s not uncommon for
researchers to work in several offices as well as a lab,” says Lamb. “Now we can dial just one
number to reach them in any workspace.” And when mobile employees receive a voicemail
message on their desktop phone, they receive an audible and visual alert on their mobile phone
so that they can respond right away, enhancing collaboration.
With Cisco Unified Communications in place, UNC Charlotte is preparing to leverage the
platform to evaluate other unified communications applications:




Emergency notification: UNC Charlotte can use the system to simultaneously dial
groups of students on their mobile phones and dorm-room phones to play a recorded
message.
Communications interoperability: Using Cisco IP Interoperability and Collaboration
Solution (IPICS), campus emergency personnel will be able to communicate directly with
the Charlotte Police Department, using any type of radio as well as cell phones,
traditional phones, or laptops with the appropriate software.
Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator: Mobile employees will be able to use Cisco
Unified Communications applications on their smartphones.
Cisco Virtual Office: To support pandemic planning as well as its green initiatives, UNC
Charlotte is planning to enable employees to access university voice, video, and
collaboration services from home.
“Before we had Cisco Unified Communications, I had to worry whether our infrastructure could
support new communication services,” says Lamb. “Now,
with our open platform, I’m confident that we can take
advantage of new services as our needs change.”
Western Technical College
January 31, 2012
96
Challenge
Located in El Paso, Texas, home of the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss, Western Technical
College provides a broad training curriculum to help students successfully pursue a career
in their chosen field — from medical to automotive, computers, and high tech. Fort Bliss
provides a significant pool of prospective students, as military personnel and their
spouses require training to transition into civilian careers. Although the college’s
enrollment surged 12 percent in 2007, the local education market remained extremely
competitive. “Students and employers have many choices, so every interaction becomes
part of their decision-making process,” says Jose Perez, IT director at Western Technical
College. “As the volume of inbound calls increases, the calls need to be handled with the
same high levels of efficiency and service to which our customers have become
accustomed. This system will allow us more latitude in doing so.”
Perez and his team identified the college’s PBX as a key area for improvement, since the aging
system proved to be limited and inflexible as the school grew. In January 2007, Western
Technical College relocated its main campus to Plaza Circle in east El Paso, 25 miles from its
original branch campus in northeast El Paso, more than doubling its square footage. The former
PBX did not allow the two campuses to be connected into a single virtual network, thus
complicating even the simplest of communications exchanges. “When customers called the main
branch campus switchboard, we had to ask them to hang up and direct-dial numbers at the main
campus. This presented a significant risk in losing the caller, and customer, forever,” Perez says.
In addition to the customer service challenge, Perez also needed a solution that would allow his
team to scale Western Technical College’s telephony capabilities cost effectively as the school
grew. “The main campus more than doubled our square footage—but a proportional increase in
telephony cabling costs was not feasible.”
Solution
Perez found the solution to both business challenges — enhancing customer service and costeffectively scaling the communications system — in Cisco Unified Communications solutions.
“While Western Technical College has been a Cisco customer and has taught the Cisco
curriculum as part of our education offering, I considered two other solution providers in
addition to Cisco,” he says. “I have been in the IT field for 20 years, and only Cisco met all of
my expectations and requirements in terms of delivering an IP-based, Unified Communications
system. Only Cisco could deliver a system that was interoperable, standards-based, costcompetitive, and from a trusted technology leader.”
Leveraging the Cisco network infrastructure installed at the new Plaza Circle campus, Perez was
able to quickly deploy Cisco Unified Communications Manager and the Cisco Unity Express
voicemail solution to provide nearly turnkey IP-based communications capabilities. The main
campus is served by approximately 60 Cisco Unified IP Phones that allow users to transfer
extensions between campuses, using a single point of contact to intercept calls for both
campuses.
After successfully deploying Cisco Unified Communications Manager at the main campus,
Western Technical College then brought IP telephony to the Diana campus, which has
approximately 40 Cisco Unified IP Phones. Both locations are integrated into a single Cisco
Unified Communications Manager environment.
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97
INX Inc., a Cisco Gold Certified Partner with Master Unified Communication Specialization,
has a long-standing relationship with Western Technical College and has provided design and
implementation services for the school’s voice and data projects, including the unified
communications rollout. “Both Cisco and INX made every effort to help ensure a smooth
deployment of our unified communications system,” Perez says. “Having engineers from both
organizations onsite gave me all the assurance I needed to make sure that the deployment would
be smooth and free of major problems. This assurance was crucial, since communications are so
important to our business.”
Results
With the Cisco Unified Communications solution up and running smoothly, Perez has noted a
number of strong benefits that help Western Technical College achieve its dual goal of providing
exemplary customer service, while cost-effectively expanding its infrastructure to support
business growth.
Most apparent is the reduction in telephony cabling costs. By leveraging existing Cisco data
networks to support the IP-based system, Western Technical College has reduced telephony
cabling costs by 50 percent. “Cabling materials and labor comprise a major cost driver in
building out any new facility such as the main campus. By choosing a Cisco Unified
Communications solution, we have achieved cost savings that go straight to the bottom line,”
Perez says.
The Cisco Unified Communications solution has also made a significant contribution toward
Western Technical College’s ability to enhance the level of customer service that it provides.
The Cisco solution has resulted in a 50 percent reduction of calls into the school’s main
switchboard due to enhanced direct dialing. Fewer calls into the main switchboard allow
receptionists to focus their attention on guests, creating a more welcoming experience. Callers
who do reach the receptionist are handled more quickly, because they are no longer directed to
hang up and call another number in their attempt to reach the intended party. In addition, since
calls can now be transparently received by, and forwarded to, the recipient’s desk phone and
mobile phone, callers are much more likely to reach the recipient instead of voicemail.
Western Technical College’s Unified Communications system delivers business-critical
availability through a highly fault-tolerant solution configuration that helps ensure that staff and
students will be able to make and receive calls, even in the event of total network failure.
“In the past, companies feared that if they lost a network connection, they would lose their VoIP
communications services,” Perez says. “Now, with the redundancy provided by Cisco Unified
Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST)—a unique feature embedded within Cisco IOS
Software running on Cisco routers—if I lose one of the T1 lines between our campuses, the
Cisco Unified Communications Manager will take over as an independent communications tool.
If I lose the branch campus, the calls will be routed through the main campus, and vice versa. In
addition, if connectivity is lost on both T1 lines, each campus can independently route calls to
the public switched telephone network. I now can be confident that we will never lose a call.”
With the integration of the two campuses now completed, employees have the ability to contact
each other through extensions from one campus to another, saving time from connecting through
a general reception area. All of these improvements ultimately reduce time and contribute to
better time management and customer service.
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Perez says, “The education market is extremely competitive. The Cisco Unified Communications
solution significantly improved our competitive position by enhancing customer service and
internal communications between our two sites.”
West Virginia University
Challenge
Located in Morgantown, West Virginia, West Virginia
University (WVU) has a faculty of 1,800 and more than 27,000
students. The university has 57 buildings on three separate
campuses spanning 90 miles. Previously, some buildings
received Centrex voice services over an ISDN network, while
others had their own PBX systems, maintained by the university
IT staff. Costs were high: The Centrex services cost $200,000
annually, and maintenance costs for the aging PBX services were increasing. In addition,
telephone extension moves, additions, and changes for university faculty and staff, who
move frequently as their buildings are renovated, cost $60,000 to $100,000 annually.
“We wanted to reduce our voice system costs and invest the savings in upgrading our IP
network to support advanced applications,” says Tim Williams, director of
telecommunications and network operations.
The university also wanted to increase the efficiency of its 12 voice and data professionals. “If
we continued maintaining separate voice and data networks, we would not have the resources to
support our growing student body, increasing research activities, and expanding campus,” says
Ed Leatherman, senior voice engineer. “A converged voice-and-data network would make us
more efficient.”
Solution
The network operations group met its business needs by migrating from ISDN to an IP network
and deploying a Cisco Unified Communications solution. Rather than upgrading the entire voice
system at once, WVU decided to upgrade individual departments and buildings when it made
financial sense. “Our first priority was to upgrade the ISDN portions of the network to IP
because we would immediately begin saving money on leased-line costs,” says Leatherman.
Departments using PBX systems would be transitioned as their equipment leases expired.
When it converts a department or building to Cisco Unified Communications, the IT group first
assesses the network to be sure that it has the intelligence to assign priority to voice traffic, as
well as the security to protect voice as well as data. To upgrade the network to support voice, the
IT group deploys Cisco Catalyst switches with connections to two Cisco Unified
Communications Manager servers in different locations. The network was upgraded to 2-Gigabit
Ethernet, and an upgrade to 10-Gigabit Ethernet was planned by 2010. After performing any
necessary upgrades, the IT group installed Cisco Unified IP Phones and trained employees.
Departments that have caller queues, such as the help desk, university operators, and extending
learning office, use Cisco Unified Contact Center Express. People who call the help desk are
prompted to press a button to indicate if they need a password reset or another problem, and the
call is routed to an available agent with the appropriate skills. The IT group set up agent skills, so
that managers can help answer calls when call volume is heavy, such as at the beginning of a
January 31, 2012
99
new semester. University operators use Cisco Unified Contact Center Express for call queuing,
helping just a few operators to efficiently handle hundreds of calls daily. For example, if the
caller dialed an 800 number to request someone’s phone number, the operator sees a pop-up
message with instructions to provide the phone number rather than transfer the call.
Voice traffic is protected by the same Cisco security features that safeguard the data network
from infections and intrusion. For additional security, the network operations group set up a
separate Virtual LAN (VLAN) for voice, preventing data traffic from touching voice traffic.
Cisco Security Agent software on the Cisco Unified Communications Manager server detects
and stops anomalous application behavior that could signal a security breach.
Results
The West Virginia University IT department eliminated $200,000 in annual Centrex costs and
invested the savings in new network equipment. Eliminating service charges for moves,
additions, and changes has saved another $100,000 annually. What is more, calls between the
main campus, the Health Sciences campus, Potomac State College, and Ruby Memorial Hospital
now travel over the university WAN instead of the public switched telephone network,
eliminating toll charges. “The migration to Cisco Unified Communications resulted in payback
in just 18 months for the departments that previously used ISDN,” says Leatherman. “All
departments increased their productivity.”
Temporary or permanent moves are now easier and less expensive. Employees can connect their
Cisco Unified IP Phone in the new location without assistance, avoiding a $200 service charge.
The savings are significant: the Health Sciences department alone had 1,100 moves, additions,
and changes in 2006. Cisco Emergency Responder software automatically registers the new
phone location in a database so that if the employee calls 911, the dispatcher can see the caller’s
current location. “A department with 200 employees recently moved to a temporary building for
several months while its permanent building is being renovated and wired for IP,” says
Leatherman. “We did not have to move a PBX and employees simply connected their Cisco
Unified IP Phones in their temporary offices to become productive immediately. They will be
able to do the same thing when they move back to their original building.”
Converging the university’s previously separate voice and data groups has created organizational
efficiencies in the IT group. “We have a relatively small staff,” says Williams. “A single-vendor
solution avoids interoperability issues, which has been a major factor in the success of our VoIP
projects. In addition, our network operations staff can use their existing skills to manage the
voice network.” The university did not need to add any employees to support unified
communications, and instead retrained its telephony engineers to support the converged IP
network.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager also helps the university comply with Homeland
Security requirements by recording all call detail information, including their origin and
duration. The detailed reporting also helps the university staff its contact centers more
efficiently.
“Our transition to Cisco Unified Communications has been achieved with minimal disruption,”
Williams says. “We are not rushing, but rather following a carefully thought-out plan. As we
upgrade each department to VoIP, our users benefit from the productivity-enhancing features of
their Cisco Unified IP Phones, as well as increased mobility and flexibility.”
January 31, 2012
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customer network, with individual custome
er environm
ments and d
data remain
ning secure
e and
isolated.
At every
y level, the manageme
ent portal offfers monito
oring, alertin
ng, and rep
porting using
g the
VNOC’s continuous and autom
matic networrk, server a
and resourcce monitorin
ng, as well as a
complete
e multi-tiered
d billing syste
em.
Pricing
g Structure
Cloud Recovery
R
| Instant On
n Cloud Co
ontinuity
Pricing is based on the number of se
ervers proteccted and the ttotal amountt of data proteected. Fee structure has a one‐tim
me provisioning fee and a monthly fee bbased on a 122 month conttract. Some fo
orm of on‐line backup mustt be included. The on‐line backup can ccome from ou
ur on‐line bacckup solution or a supported
d third party backup solutiion (i.e Iron M
Mountain LiveeVault, CA AR
RCservr, EMC Avamar). Priccing for our on
n‐line backup solution is in
ncluded later in this sectionn. Cloud Recovery
R
Pricing Example
E
Server Description
D
P
(RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
3
3.6.2.O – Disaster Recovery and Backup
Type
Windows File Server
Fee Structure
Description
One Time Service
Provisioning Fee
Name
Server 1
Server 2
Server 3
Quantity
3
Quantity
3
Unit Price
$ 310.00
Data Size
134 GB
Total
$ 930.00
One-Time Total *
Service Fee (includes
100GB storage each)
Additional Storage
(blocks of 25GB)
$930.00
3
$ 611.00
$ 1,833.00
4
$33.00
$ 132.00
Monthly Total *
$1965.00
* Pricing does not include applicable taxes.
Virtual Server Rapid Recovery (VSRR)
Pricing is based on the number of servers protected and the length of archive. Fee structure has a one‐
time set‐up fee and a monthly fee for standby mode. Some form of on‐line backup must be included. The on‐line backup can come from our on‐line backup solution or a supported third party backup solution (i.e Iron Mountain LiveVault, CA ARCservr, EMC Avamar). Pricing for our on‐line backup solution is included later in this section. Active recovery pricing is implemented in the event of a disaster. VSRR
Pricing Example
Server Description
Type
Windows File Server
Windows File Server
Windows File Server
Qty
3
2
5
Size
Medium
Large
Extra Large
Data Vol
500 GB
560 GB total
430 GB total
Retention Period
1 year archived
1 year archived
1 year archived
Fee Structure
One-Time Setup
Standard Template
Custom Template
Quantity
10
TBD
Unit Price
$ 229.00
$ 499.00
One-Time Total *
10
Standby Mode
$ 46.00
Monthly Total *
Active Recovery Mode
3 Medium
$ 1.81 /hr /server
January 31, 2012
Total
$ 2,290.00
$ 0.00
$ 2,290.00
$ 460.00
$ 460.00
Incident-based
4
Storage
Bandwidth IN
2 Large
5 Extra Large
1490 GB
$ 2.50 /hr /server
$ 5.00 /hr /server
$.250 / GB / mo
$.250 / GB / mo
Incident-based
Incident-based
Incident-based
Incident-based
Online Cloud Backup
Pricing is based on the number of devices and storage amount. Fee structure monthly Online Cloud Backup
Example Pricing
Server Description
Type
Windows File Server
Qty
13
Size
4 Med, 3 Lrg, 6 XLrg
Data Vol
1.624 TB total
Retention Period
1 year archived
Fee Structure
Description
Per Device Fee
Quantity
13
Unit Price
$3.69 / mo
Total
$47.97
1663 GB
$1.54 / GB / mo
$ 2561.02
Storage
(includes 10 GB each)
Monthly Total *
$ 2608.99
Cloud Recovery | Instant On Demand Cloud Continuity Details



Services are sold as a 12-month subscription.
Ninety (90) days technical support from the time of order is provided at no charge for the
unmanaged service.
Three (3) failover days per year are included at no additional charge for both
unmanaged and managed services offerings.
RR Standby Mode Details




Services are sold as a 12-month subscription.
Ninety (90) days technical support from the time of order is provided at no charge for the
Restore-Ready Server Setup.
One (1) full recovery test is provided per server during the setup process.
Server sizes are defined as:
o Small [1GB RAM, 1 CPU Core]
o Medium [up to 4GB RAM, 1CPU Core]
o Large [up to 4GB RAM, 2 CPU Core]
o Extra Large [4+ GB RAM, 2+ CPU Core]
January 31, 2012
5
RR Active Failover Mode Details



All Failover Mode Services are sold On-Demand and are either hourly, daily or monthly
as indicated.
Standby Servers can be turned on and off via the Arrow portal system and will incur
Compute charges only while powered on.
While running in Active Mode the Recovery Server continues the backup per designated
schedule.
Cancellation Policy





All services are purchased as one (1) year subscriptions. Within the first 30 days of
order, customer may cancel at anytime with no penalty.
Upon cancellation within 30 days of order, Arrow will reimburse the reseller the one
month cost of the service less the applicable service set up fees.
Cancellation of service after 30 days of order will be subject to a penalty of 25% of the
remaining 12 month subscription plus a disconnect fee of $79.
Subscription will be automatically renewed for one (1) year unless customer provides
cancellation notice within 30 days of subscription end.
Disconnect fee of $79 will not apply when subscription is cancelled within 30 days of
subscription end.
January 31, 2012
6
T
Prod
– Web Hosting
n 3.6.2 Q – Web Hosting
H
n the require
ements spec
cified we recommend ussing the Virtu
ual Server op
ption describ
bed
ction 3.6.2.O
O above. Thiis solution is
s based on IB
BM SmartClloud Enterprrise. Custom
mers
ve hundreds
s of service oriented
o
web
bsites that ju
ust serve up read requessts and some
e
ate updates. Example: blogs and social media web applica
ations. The costs for the
ese
environmentts often add up, and typically dedica
ated servers are required
d to service
orkloads.
sting Worklloads: Why
y Applicable
e to SmartC
Cloud Enterp
rprise?
Rapid deploy
yment of infra
astructure to
o avoid capittal investment for projeccts with an
ncertain bus
siness case
o Pay as you go pricing
o Opex vs. Capex
Elastic scalab
bility and geo
ographic rea
ach reduce rrisk of uncerrtain capacityy needs for W
Web
Applications
Some custom
mer workload
ds can eitherr accept the IBM Cloud SLA or be re
edesigned w
with
esiliency pattterns in the application
Web Hosting
g Across Mu
ultiple Indus
stries
nsurance
o Deplo
oyment of ne
ew financial services
s
pro
oducts to me
eet spike in d
demand
o Workload specific
c for non com
mpliance rela
ated areas ssuch as markketing sites
ife Sciences
s
o Drug and
a productt safety can often
o
drive u
up spikes in call center a
and web site
e
demand
o Produ
uct informatio
on and mark
keting materrials are often good cand
didates for C
Cloud
deploy
yment
Energy and Utilities
U
Proposal (RFP): 26
69-2011-065
January 31, 20112
1
3.6.2.Q – Web Hosting
o
o
Collaboration of applications and integration with other
departments/organizations
Launching of new initiatives such as portals
January 31, 2012
2
1. On-going Support and Maintenance.
Throughout the life of the Agreement, the successful Service Provider(s) will maintain expertise,
resources and capabilities to:


Perform consulting, assessment, design, integration, installation, and managed Services or
solutions at the task order level;
o Professional services include consulting around design, planning, integration,
installation, migrations, upgrades and solution services for Data Center, Servers &
Storage, Security, and Software
 Core Products:
 NetApp
 EMC
 Citrix
 Microsoft
 VMware
 Cisco
 Packaged Services are offered for NetApp & VMware Services
 Custom Services are offered on ALL technologies supported and are priced
at daily rates with an estimated duration, hourly rates for remote engineering
engagements or fixed price if requested
 Pricing provided will include labor rates for engineer or consultant, project
management and estimated travel expenses
Perform a wide range of professional, technical support and on goring management
services
o Technical Support and Managed Services include:
 Remote Break/Fix Support
 Incident based support for multiple vendors in the data center, list of
supported vendors upon request
 Support contracts are available for 24x7 or business day, purchased
in 5 pack increments
 Remote Engineering Support
 Used for assistance for upgrades, migrations or other technical
projects
 Priced in ten (10) hour blocks
 Desktop Support
 Basic includes remote end user support for standard applications
and basic administration
 Enhanced includes proactive maintenance including OS patching,
virus definition files updates and defrag
 Flexible pricing options including per user/month or per call/month
(minimum commitment required)
 Remote Monitoring and Management
 Services are performed 24x7, 365 days a year by experienced,
certified technicians, who use enterprise-class technologies and
follow proven ITIL processes to ensure continuous uptime for
servers, infrastructure applications, custom applications, Database,
Storage, network devices, and desktops
 “AID” Services
o Industry standard monitoring checks the availability and
performance of Windows and Linux operating system
services, event logs, SNMP based network devices, as well
as hardware errors
 “MANAGE” Services
in addition to monitoring, SOP remediation and full issue
resolution, Arrow Fusion personnel reviews incoming alerts
and log files to quickly pinpoint an issue and remediate the
problem
Custom pricing is based on per device/month
o

Enterprise Elite Services
REMOTE INFRASTRUCTURE AND DESKTOP MANAGED SERVICES Arrow Fusion Enterprise Elite Services (EES) are designed to provide solution providers with a comprehensive suite of remote infrastructure and desktop managed services for enterprise clients with a large IT footprint or sophisticated technology solutions. Arrow Fusion services are performed 24x7, 365 days a year by experienced, certified technicians, who use enterprise‐class technologies and follow proven ITIL processes to ensure continuous uptime for servers, infrastructure applications, custom applications, Database, Storage, network devices, and desktops.
Server and Network Infrastructure Services Preventive Maintenance Minimizes Business Risk To reduce the risk of system failure or outages, both Arrow Fusion EES AID and MANAGE services include 2
Windows patch management for operating systems, as well as proactive Antivirus definition updates, Active Directory (AD) and Exchange health checks. Partners will approve all major updates performed. AID MANAGE ENTERPRISE ELITE SERVICES FOR SERVERS AND NETWORK 24x7 Monitoring of Windows Server (Availability, Performance, Services and Event logs), Synth Xaction, Network Devices and Backup Processes Alert Validation & Escalation 



Verifying Completion of Backup Jobs 

Arrow Fusion Pre‐defined Standard Operating Procedures‐(SOPs) Initial Remediation Client’s Custom Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)‐based Initial Remediation ISP Vendor3 escalations for Link Downtime 





Anti‐virus Definition Updates Validated 

Windows Patch Management Per Customer Approval 

2‐way Integration with Autotask/Connectwise or Access to Portal for Case Tracking and Metrics Reports Executive Dashboard (web portal), On‐Demand, Weekly & Monthly Reports 



Monthly Health Checks for Active Directory and Exchange 
Troubleshooting and Full Remediation 
Vendor Tech Support1 for Further Troubleshooting and Full Resolution 
Hardware Vendor1 Coordination for Hardware Failures 
4 
Move, Add, Change (MACs) and Service Requests EES Target End Client Mid‐sized and large enterprises. Or, end clients with a minimum of 101 and up to 250 devices, desktops or users. End clients Two levels of EES services are available: AID proactively monitors the health of your client’s server and network infrastructure: industry standard monitoring checks the availability and performance of Windows and Linux operating system services, event logs, SNMP based network devices, as well as hardware errors. Arrow Fusion personnel reviews incoming alerts and log files to quickly pinpoint an issue and proceed with pre‐defined standard operating procedures (SOPs) for remediation. If the SOPs fail to resolve the problem, the ticket is updated and immediately escalated to a designated partner contact or ISP vendor for resolution of the issue. MANAGE lets you profit from full remediation and management of your client’s server and network infrastructure: in addition to monitoring, SOP remediation and full issue resolution, Arrow Fusion personnel reviews incoming alerts and log files to quickly pinpoint an issue and remediate the problem. If the Arrow Fusion personnel is unable to resolve the problem, the ticket will be updated with detailed troubleshooting steps and immediately escalated to the vendor Tech Support1 or ISP vendor for further troubleshooting and full resolution. 5
with more than 250 devices will be scoped separately. Always On 24x7 monitoring of critical IT infrastructure. No Disruption Preventive maintenance is performed for updates, changes, and performance‐intense services during non‐peak periods to eliminate client business impact. Complete Control Solution providers set SOP standards for the review of incoming alerts and initial execution. Detailed reports reveal work performed. Proactive Incoming alerts are reviewed and immediately remediated by Arrow Fusion. If required, we coordinate with Vendor tech support2 on your behalf. Fully Integrated All alerts are updated in Autotask and Connectwise PSA tools. Arrow Fusion will support published RMM tools, platform or infrastructure hardware used by our partners and their clients. Accountable Arrow Fusion EES AID and MANAGE services include detailed reports generated on all activity performed – alerts, trouble tickets, preventive maintenance, and infrastructure performance ‐‐ all instantly available from a secure web portal or pushed to you each week or month. prise Elite
e Serrvicees
ASTRUCTURE AND DESKTOP MANAGED SER VICES Impro
ove Productivityy Impro
ove desktop/lapttop reliability and performance with security patch management and Antivirus Definiition Updates. No Diisruption Operaating system and
d application updattes and upgrades are delivered duringg non‐peak perio
ods, reducing impacct to your client’s productivity. Free‐u
up Resources Your cclients can contaact Arrow Fusion
n by Chat, Email or via alert Ticketts to resolve anyy issue without tying up your team. Deskto
op Servicces
n EES Desktop se
ervices help soluution providers maintain the prroductivity, as w
well as optimize the Arrow Fusion
performance, reliability and security of thei r client’s Windo
ows‐based deskttops and portab
ble devices. EES Desktop serviices are perform
med 24x7, 365 daays a year by expperienced, certiffied Windows ad
dministrators, w
who use enterprise‐class technolo
ogies and follow proven ITIL processes to ensuree minimal impacct on user of desktop and p
portable devicess. productivity o
Arrow Fusion partners may choose from twoo levels of EES Deesktop services ffor Windows deesktops and portable D and MANAGE. EES AID provid es remote Winddows patch management and An
ntivirus updates for systems – AID
preventive maintenance. EESS MANAGE includdes the same seervices offered w
within AID, and includes access tto your Arrow Fusion desktop su
upport team by Chat, Email or vvia alert Ticket fo
or any desktop o
or laptop issue. wn IT Staff. Arrow Fusion will respond as if they are a meember of your ow
AID ENTERPRISE ELITE SERVICES FFOR DESKTOPS Managemen
nt of Windows P
Patch Releases (O
Operating System, IE, Office) to De
esktops and Porrtable Systems 

Anti‐virus Definition Update
es Validated 

Inventory Re
eporting (deskto
ops/laptops) 


Contact via Phone, Email, or Web for Deskttop/Laptop Issuees, Access or Problems w
with Network(s) o
or Printer(s), Useer Password Ressets, PDA Synchronizaation, Virus Removal and VPN Cllient Configuratiion/Access. All Requestss/Issues Ticketed
d and Escalated (Per Customer Specification
n) MANAGE 1 – Miccrosoft Vendor Tech SSupport Included. M
Must have valid vendo
ors’ maintenance/technical agre
eement for Network devices, Non‐Microssoft or 3rd nce/technical party applications, and Antii‐virus products. Expiiration of maintenan
supportt agreement places limits on AID & MANAGE services. Softwaare & Hardwaare put into ‘End of LLife’ by vendor will be
e limited to AID and MANAGE service only. IT
TINFRASTRUCTTURE
SUPPPORTEDTECHN
NOLOGY
Se
erver Operating Syystems
Winndows Server, SBS Server, Linux Flavvors (Red Hat, Centos & Ubuuntu), Unix Dom
main Controller (Acctive Directory), Email (Microsoft Exchhange), Backup (Syymantec, NT Backkup), Mobile (Bla ckberry), Virtualizzation (VMware, Xen), Terminal Serv
vers, Citriix, SharePoint, Weeb Servers (Apachee, Tomcat, IIS, Web logicc, JBoss, J2EE), Custom Applicationss MS SQL (EXP, STD, EN
NT), My SQL (STD, ENT)
Se
erver Applicationss
des Security & Critical patches. 2 – Default Windows patch Management includ
of the customer. Genuine Windows license iss the responsibility o
3 – Customer or solution prroviders should autho
orize Arrow Fusion p
personnel to escalatee link failures to ISP vvendor. Valid supporrt contracts managed
d by the custom
mer. Databases
4‐ MAC
Cs for AD, Exchange m
mail boxes, Blackberrry, Terminal servers aand Citrix are inclluded. Network 5‐ Serviice requests limited tto 30 minutes in lenggth. 5 hours per mon
nth maximu
um per customer. Sttorage Swittches, Router, Firrewall, WAP (Ciscco, HP & Juniper)) and VoIPP (Cisco) EMC, HDS, HP, IBM
M, NetApp Desktops Winndows XP and upw
wards Antivirus Products
Sym
mantec, McAfee & Trend Micro
About Arrow Fusion Arrow Fusion offers the IT channel a bette
er way to grow infrastructure, enterrprise, cloud and ddata center IT mannaged and professional services. Thee company’s innov
vative remote and comprehensive suite of IT serrvices (IT‐as‐a‐Servvice) gives solution
n providers and M
MSPs instant accesss to expert, certifieed IT engineers, prroven ITIL processes n ISO27001 certifie
ed, SAS70 audited network operatin
ng center (NOC) att a much lower cosst than full‐time reesources. Partnerss purchase Arrow Fusion IT‐as‐a‐Service and an
on a m
monthly or hourly b
basis to enhance o
or augment their ITT capabilities; som
me choose to resel l Arrow Fusion dirrectly to their end customers. Visit u
us at www.eecs.arrow.com or call 800.544.7674. ©20111 Arrow Fusion. Alll rights reserved. Features and speccifications are subjject to change wit hout notice. All otther trademarks used herein are thee property of theirr respecctive owners.
Mid‐market Services
REMOTE INFRASTRUCTURE AND DESKTOP MANAGED SERVICES Arrow Fusion Mid‐market Services (MMS) are designed to provide solution providers with a comprehensive suite of remote infrastructure and desktop managed services for their mid‐sized business clients. Arrow Fusion services are performed 24x7, 365 days a year by experienced, certified technicians, who use enterprise‐class technologies and follow proven ITIL processes to ensure continuous uptime for servers, network devices, infrastructure applications and desktops.
Server and Network Infrastructure Services Two levels of MMS are available: AID proactively monitors the health of your client’s server and network infrastructure: industry standard monitoring checks the availability and performance of Windows & Linux operating system services, event logs, SNMP based network devices as well as hardware errors. Arrow Fusion personnel reviews incoming alerts and log files to quickly pinpoint an issue and proceed with pre‐defined standard operating procedures (SOPs) for remediation. If the SOPs fail to resolve the problem, the ticket is updated and immediately escalated to a designated partner contact or ISP vendor for resolution of the issue. MANAGE lets you profit from full remediation and management of your client’s server and network infrastructure: in addition to monitoring, SOP remediation and full resolution of problems or issues, Arrow Fusion personnel reviews incoming alerts and log files to quickly pinpoint an issue and remediate the problem. If the Arrow Fusion personnel is unable to resolve the problem, the ticket will be updated with detailed troubleshooting steps and immediately escalated to the vendor Tech Support1 or ISP vendor for further troubleshooting and full resolution. Preventive Maintenance and Weekly Reporting Reduce the risk of system failure or outages with Arrow Fusion SBS AID and MANAGE. Services include Windows patch management2 for operating systems, as well as proactive Anti‐virus definition updates, Active Directory (AD) and Exchange health checks. Partners will approve all major updates performed. Weekly and monthly reporting is provided and reports are available on demand for both Arrow Fusion SBS AID and MANAGE services. Arrow Fusion reports provide valuable data for Arrow Fusion partners to regularly assess the overall health of their client’s IT infrastructure under management. AID MANAGE MID‐MARKET SERVICES FOR SERVERS AND NETWORK 24x7 Monitoring of Windows Server (Availability, Performance, Services and Event logs), Network Devices and backup processes Alert Validation & Escalation 



Verifying Completion of Backup Jobs 

Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs)‐based Initial Remediation 

ISP Vendor3 Escalations for Link Downtime 

Anti‐virus Definition Updates Validated 

Windows Patch Management Per Customer Approval 

2‐way Integration with Autotask/Connectwise or Access to Portal for Case Tracking and Metrics Reports Executive Dashboard (web portal), On‐Demand, Weekly & Monthly Reports 



Monthly Health Checks for Active Directory and Exchange 
Troubleshooting & Full Remediation 
Vendor Tech Support for Further Troubleshooting and Full Resolution 
4
Move, Add, Change (MACs) 
MMS Targets End Client More complex Small and Mid‐
sized businesses.. Or, end clients with up to 250 users and a minimum of four (4) and maximum of 100 servers or network devices. Always On 24x7 monitoring of critical IT infrastructure. No Disruption Preventive maintenance is performed for updates, changes, and performance‐intense services during non‐peak periods, eliminating impact to client business operations. Complete Control Arrow Fusion sets SOP standards for the review of incoming alerts and initial execution. Detailed reports show work performed. Proactive Incoming alerts are reviewed and immediately remediated by Arrow Fusion. If required, we coordinate with Vendor tech support2 for remediation. Fully Integrated All alerts are updated in Autotask and Connectwise PSA tools. Arrow Fusion will support published RMM tools, platform or infrastructure hardware used by our partners and their clients. Accountable Detailed reports are generated on all activity performed – alerts, trouble tickets, preventive maintenance, and infrastructure performance ‐‐ all instantly available from a secure web portal. marke
et Se
ervice
es
ASTRUCTURE AND DESKTOP MANAGED SER VICES Impro
ove Productivityy Impro
ove desktop/lapttop reliability and performance with consistent security patch managgement and Anti‐vvirus Definition U
Updates. No Diisruption Operaating system, application updattes and upgrades are delivered duringg non‐peak perio
ods to reduce the im
mpact to client p
productivity. Free‐u
up Resources Your cclients can contaact Arrow Fusion
n by Chat, Email or via alert Ticketts to resolve anyy issue without tying up your team. Deskto
op Servicces
n MMS Desktop services help soolution providerrs maintain the productivity, ass well as optimizze Arrow Fusion
the performaance, reliability aand security of ttheir client’s Windows‐based d
desktops and po
ortable devices.
MMS Desktop
p services are pe
erformed 24x7, 365 days a year by experienced, certified Windows administrattors, who use ente
erprise‐class tech
hnologies and foollow proven ITIL processes for m
minimal impact on user producttivity of desktop an
nd portable devices. Arrow Fusion partners may choose from twoo levels of MMS Desktop servicees for Windows d
desktops and ems – AID and M
MANAGE. MMS AID provides reemote Windows patch managem
ment and Anti‐virus portable syste
updates for p
preventive mainttenance. MMS M
MANAGE includees the same servvices offered witthin AID, and includes acce
ess to your Arrow
w Fusion desktopp support team by Chat, Email o
or via alert Tickeet for any deskto
op or laptop issue. Arrow Fusion w
will respond as if f they are a mem
mber of your own IT Staff. Managemen
nt of Windows P
Patch Releases (O
Operating System, IE, Office) to De
esktops and Porrtable Systems 

Anti‐virus Definition Update
es Validated 

Inventory Re
eporting (deskto
ops/laptops) 


Contact via Phone, Email, or Web for Deskttop/Laptop Issuees, Access or Problems w
with Network(s) o
or Printer(s), Useer Password Ressets, PDA Synchronizaation, Virus Removal and VPN Cllient Configuratiion/Access. All Requestss/Issues Ticketed
d and Escalated (Per Customer Specification
n) MANAGE AID MID‐MARKEET SERVICES FOR DESKTOPS 1 – Miccrosoft Vendor Tech SSupport Included. M
Must have valid vendo
ors’ maintenance/technical agre
eement for Network devices, Non‐Microssoft or 3rd party applications, and Antii‐virus products. Expiiration of maintenan
nce/technical supportt agreement places limits on AID & MANAGE services. Softwaare & hardwaare put into ‘End of LLife’ phase by vendorr will be limited to AID & MANAG
GE service only. IT
TINFRASTRUCTTURE
SUPPPORTEDTECHN
NOLOGY
Se
erver Operating Syystems
Winndows Server 20000 and upwards, SB
BS Server Linux Flav
vors
(Redd Hat, Centos & Ubuntu ) Dom
main Controller (Acctive Directory), Email (Microsoft Exchhange), Backup (Syymantec, NT Backkup), Mobile (Bla ckberry), Virtualizzation (VMware, Xen), Terminal Serv
vers, Citriix, SharePoint, Weeb Servers (Apachee, Tomcat, IIS, Web logicc, JBoss, J2EE) MS SQL (EXP, STD), M
My SQL (STD)
Se
erver Applicationss
2 – Default Windows patch Management includ
des Security & Critical patches. of the customer. Genuine Windows license iss the responsibility o
Databases
3 – Customer or solution prroviders should autho
orize Arrow Fusion p
personnel to escalatee link failures to ISP vvendor. Valid supporrt contracts managed
d by the custom
mer. Network 4‐ MAC
Cs for AD, Exchange m
mail boxes, Blackberrry, Terminal servers aand Citrix are inclluded. Website Monitorin
W
ng
Swittches, Router, Fireewall, WAP and Vo
oIP (Cisco, HP & Juniiper) Webbsite Monitoring Desktops Winndows XP and upw
wards Anti‐virus Productss
Sym
mantec, McAfee & Trend Micro
About Arrow Fusion Arrow Fusion services giive solution provid
ders a better way tto manage IT from
m the closet to the cloud. The compaany’s innovative reemote and comprehensive suite of IT servicees (IT‐as‐a‐Service) gives solution providers and MSPs instant access to expert certified ITT engineers, proveen ITIL processes and an ISO27001 certified, SAS70 audited netwo
ork operating cente
er (NOC) at a much lower cost than full‐time resource
es. Partners purchaase Arrow Fusion IT‐as‐a‐Service on
n a monthly or hou
urly basis to enhan
nce or augmeent their IT capabilities; some choose to resell Arrow FFusion directly to ttheir end customeers. Visit us at www
w.ecs.arrow.com or call 800.544.76646. ©20111 Arrow Fusion. Alll rights reserved. Features and speccifications are subjject to change wit hout notice. All otther trademarks used herein are thee property of theirr respecctive owners.
ARROW ENTERPRISE COMPUTING SOLUTIONS
Arrow FusionSM Professional Services
Desktop Support
Do your customers need to minimize their IT support costs
without sacrificing employee productivity? Then you’ll be
glad to know that Arrow Fusion Professional Services offers 24/7 Desktop Support. A quick call, email, web or chat
request provides assistance for all major desktop operating
systems and applications, as well as traditional and virtual
desktop environments.
Desktop productivity drives business productivity. With so
much riding on desktop availability, it’s good to know that
fast, personalized assistance is just minutes away.
Features and Benefits
•
Seamless, remote troubleshooting, configuration and maintenance for all desktop operating systems,
including traditional and virtual environments.
•
Users request support by phone, email, web and chat.
•
No voicemail or automated menu systems. Service requests ALWAYS answered by a person.
•
One Year Contract, Billed Monthly.
•
Preventative Maintenance of Desktops.
•
Unlimited support 24/7 in North America.
•
Staffed by qualified, certified, US-based engineers.
Fig. 1 Enhanced Desktop Support Dashboard
ARROW FUSIONSM — Professional Services that help you grow
Support Services
•
•
•
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-based service delivery model with ticketing system, real-time metrics reporting and
knowledgebase management.
Extensive knowledgebase that speeds problem resolution for common issues.
White-labeled services and web portal for reseller rebranding.
Options
• Standard Desktop Support includes all major operating systems, standard applications (including 3rd party or proprietary applications) and related services, such as network and printer configuration, mobile device synchronization,
virus removal and general administrative tasks.
• Enhanced Desktop Support includes Standard services plus system cleanup and optimization, patch
management, antivirus and spyware scanning, asset and inventory reporting and portal access.
Whether you are focusing on growing your business, entering new markets, building your pipeline, or closing more
opportunities, Arrow Fusion desktop support provides an option to meet your needs.
Standard Desktop
Support
Enhanced Desktop
Support
Software: Desktop operating systems, standard applications, third party
or proprietary applications (Case by case basis)
•
•
Services: Network and printer configuration, PDA synchronization and
configuration, general administrative tasks
•
•
Preventative Maintenance: Patch installation and management, security
scanning, file and folder cleanup, asset and inventory reporting
•
Web Portal Access: Single Point access to all your clients Ability to
manage all the devices. Tickets for clients from a single portal.
•
Credentials/Experience:
When you contract with us, you can be confident of the high
level of knowledge and expertise you are extending to your
client’s projects. Staffed with experts on multiple products
and technologies, each member of our professional
services team has years of real-world experience,
ensuring your client’s project will be a success in any
environment.
Professional Services
Engagement Process
We make it easy to partner with us giving you access to
our broad portfolio of professional services. Leverage our
complete turnkey solutions including presales support,
available project planning and management, and the
technical expertise to ensure the job is done right from
start to finish. All you have to do is contact your Arrow ECS
sales representative and we’ll do the rest.
Competitive Differentiators
•
•
•
•
Arrow Fusion will NEVER compete against our VARs for
their client’s business.
“No strings attached”: VAR has the flexibility to
decide when and how to combine additional products,
solutions, or services.
Streamlined yet flexible engagement model
accelerates the sales cycle while preserving your client
relationships.
One-stop-shopping: Our engineers and consultants
are experts in multiple products and technologies
and can leverage our extensive line card for solution
recommendations.
For more information, contact Arrow FusionSM professional services at 877.558.6677 or
visit http://ecs.arrow.com/services/professional_services.html
©2005-2011 Arrow Electronics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Arrow ECS logo is a registered trademark of Arrow Electronics, Inc. All other products, brands, and names are trademarks of their respective owners.
PSSUDT1007A
SM
Arrow Fusion
Consulting Services
As a value-added reseller (VAR), servicing your clients with
the best possible solutions is a top priority. But at times
you might lack the time, training, and cross-technology
expertise to support new technologies. Increasing technical
complexity and competitive pressures place mounting
demands on your internal resources, and a major new
technology implementation can stretch those resources
beyond their limits. Arrow ECS professional services acts
as an extension to your services team providing rapid
scalability and expertise needed to address virtually any
professional services need. Our Subject Matter Experts
(SMEs) can help you deliver product and services solutions
that fill the critical business needs of your customers.
Whether your client is evaluating a new technology
deployment, needs to upgrade or migrate a legacy system,
or just needs to optimize a part of their network, we focus
on the entire life cycle of your customers’ network—and
expand technology opportunities that bring you more
business.
Consulting Services helps you:
•
•
•
•
Manage business growth with a smaller engineering
staff.
Explore opportunities outside your normal geographic
coverage area.
Deliver new skill sets, which would be unavailable with
your current staff.
Capture revenue for a greater range of projects and
services than previously possible.
Consulting Services Area of Expertise:
Following industry best practices and procedures, our
industry and vendor-certified consultants provide resources
and expertise to augment your existing capabilities. Our
areas of expertise include:
Assess
Manage
Design
Deploy
Data Center
• Allot
• Blue Coat
• Cisco
• Citrix
• CommVault
• Double-Take
Storage and Servers
• NetApp
• DataCore
• EMC
Security Consulting
• Fortinet
• McAfee
• SafeNet
• SonicWALL
• Watchguard
Software
• CA
Plan
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lakeside Software
Microsoft
Novell
Radware
Riverbed
Vizioncore
•
•
•
•
Hitachi Data Systems
HP
IBM
Brocade
•
•
•
•
Regulatory Compliance
Penetration Testing
Incident Response
Forensics
•
Oracle
Project management services are available on every Arrow
ECS consulting engagement or as a standalone service
according to the VAR’s needs.
ARROW FUSION™ — Professional Services that help you grow
Consulting Services
Whether you are focusing on growing your business, entering new markets, building your pipeline, or closing more opportunities, Arrow ECS professional services provides the necessary tools, resources, and support to accelerate your efforts
and ensure your success.
Service
Need
Solution
Consulting Services
• Vendor / Industry-certified experts
• Specializing in Data Center, Storage,
Servers, Security, and Software
• Assessment, Design, Planning, Migration, Implementation
• Project Management
VARs that need to grow their business
faster than the market and faster than the
competition but lack the technical staff
and/or resources to address all of their
clients needs.
We act as an extension to a VAR’s services
team providing rapid scalability and
expertise needed to address virtually any
professional services opportunity. Our
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can help
deliver product and services solutions
that fill the critical business needs of our
reseller’s clients.
Education Services
• Vendor authorized training
• Open enrollment, Private / VAR-hosted, Online
• Microsoft, VMware, Novell, Blue Coat,
Fortinet, SonicWALL
VARs that need to gain engineering certifications or capture additional revenue
and profit by training their clients on new
technology.
We provide Vendor-authorized training as
a turnkey service to VARs and their clients.
We enable the VAR to expand their vendor/
product portfolio through increased engineering certifications and to enable the
VAR’s clients to maximize their technology
investments.
Support Services
• 24x7 telephone-based help desk
• OneCall incident-based support
• Elite / Managed support
• Multi-vendor / Multi-product
VARs that need to improve their ability to
provide technical support after the sale but
have limited resources to build or expand
their own help desk.
We enable VARs to offer a wide range of
post-sales technical support services to
their clients allowing them to build and
strengthen long-term relationships.
Managed Services / Cloud Computing
• MSP aggregation and integration for
VARs
• Managed Security Services
• Managed Infrastructure Services
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Disaster Recovery and Business
Continuity
VARs that need to offer their clients alternative solutions while building or expanding a monthly recurring revenue stream.
By acting as a managed services aggregator, we streamline and accelerate the
selection, engagement, integration, and
management process for VARs building or expanding their managed services
portfolio.
client’s projects. Staffed with experts on multiple products and technologies, each member of our professional
services team has years of real-world experience as well,
ensuring that your client’s project will be a success in any
environment.
Engagement Process
We make it easy to partner with us and leverage our broad
portfolio of professional services. We offer complete turnkey solutions including presales support, available project
planning and management, and the technical expertise to
ensure the job is done right from start to finish. All you have
to do is contact your Arrow ECS sales representative and
we’ll do the rest.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arrow ECS will NEVER compete against our VARs for
Pre-determined deliverables, timelines, and costs are
based on a Statement of Work (SOW).
“No strings attached”: VAR has the flexibility to decide
when and how to combine additional products, solutions, or services with each project.
Streamlined yet flexible engagement model accelerates
the sales cycle while preserving your client relationships.
Available project management resources ensure each
engagement goes as smoothly as possible.
One-stop-shopping: Our engineers and consultants are
experts in multiple products and technologies and can
leverage our extensive line card for solution recommendations.
For more information, contact professional services at 877.558.6677 or
Arrow FusionSM Professional Services
One Call Support
In today’s fast-paced business environment, don’t let your
customers suffer from inefficient support and unnecessary
downtime.
A little insurance can go a long way toward protecting the
bottom line. With Arrow ECS support services, you and your
customers get instant access to our highly trained team of
experts and timely solutions across multiple platforms. Our
support contracts enhance your customer’s existing vendor
maintenance contracts by providing a single support contract that covers virtually every product in your customer’s
data center, thereby eliminating the hassle and frustration
of single vendor / single product support.
One Call Support
Our telephone-based technical support services are available around the clock, providing expert troubleshooting
assistance whenever it’s needed. We provide a one-stop
shop support solution; the customer is never told to call
someone else.
Features and Benefits
One Call support reduces system downtime and increases
overall reliability and productivity.
• Industry and vendor certified engineers that have years
of real-world experience. Certifications include MSCE,
CCA, CNE, CCNA, VCP, and many others.
•
Personalized Service – The phone is ALWAYS answered
by a person, you never have to deal with voicemail or
automated menu systems!
•
A single point of contact for all your support needs - we
troubleshoot across multiple products and platforms so
you never have to call someone else to get your issue
resolved.
•
Escalation support - we escalate to vendors as needed
on your behalf to resolve the most complex of issues at
no additional charge.
•
Extensive knowledge base - developed over years of
solving complex problems, our knowledge base lets us
quickly diagnose and resolve commonly reported issues
or any issue that has been reported in the past.
Options
One Call support contracts are telephone-based, incidentbased, and good for 12 months. You pay for only the amount
of coverage you think you will need in a year. Options
include:
• Standard business day support, 8:00A.M. – 5:00P.M. in
the customer’s local time zone
• 24x7x365 support
• Incidents are purchased in increments of five
ARROW FUSION™ — Professional Services that help you grow
Support Services
Whether you are focusing on growing your business, entering new markets, building your pipeline, or closing more opportunities, Arrow ECS professional services provides the necessary tools, resources, and support to accelerate your efforts
and ensure your success.
Service
Need
Solution
Consulting Services
• Vendor / Industry-certified experts
• Specializing in Data Center, Storage,
Servers, Security, and Software
• Assessment, Design, Planning, Migration, Implementation
• Project Management
VARs that need to grow their business
faster than the market and faster than the
competition but lack the technical staff
and/or resources to address all of their
clients needs.
We act as an extension to a VAR’s services
team providing rapid scalability and
expertise needed to address virtually any
professional services opportunity. Our
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can help
deliver product and services solutions
that fill the critical business needs of our
reseller’s clients.
Education Services
• Vendor authorized training
• Open enrollment, Private / VAR-hosted, Online
• Microsoft, VMware, Novell, Blue Coat,
Fortinet, SonicWALL
VARs that need to gain engineering certifications or capture additional revenue
and profit by training their clients on new
technology.
We provide Vendor-authorized training as
a turnkey service to VARs and their clients.
We enable the VAR to expand their vendor/
product portfolio through increased engineering certifications and to enable the
VAR’s clients to maximize their technology
investments.
Support Services
• 24x7 telephone-based help desk
• OneCall incident-based support
• Elite / Managed support
• Multi-vendor / Multi-product
VARs that need to improve their ability to
provide technical support after the sale but
have limited resources to build or expand
their own help desk.
We enable VARs to offer a wide range of
post-sales technical support services to
their clients allowing them to build and
strengthen long-term relationships.
Managed Services / Cloud Computing
• MSP aggregation and integration for
VARs
• Managed Security Services
• Managed Infrastructure Services
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Disaster Recovery and Business
Continuity
VARs that need to offer their clients alternative solutions while building or expanding a monthly recurring revenue stream.
By acting as a managed services aggregator, we streamline and accelerate the
selection, engagement, integration, and
management process for VARs building or expanding their managed services
portfolio.
client’s projects. Staffed with experts on multiple products and technologies, each member of our professional
services team has years of real-world experience as well,
ensuring that your client’s project will be a success in any
environment.
Engagement Process
We make it easy to partner with us and leverage our broad
portfolio of professional services. We offer complete turnkey solutions including presales support, available project
planning and management, and the technical expertise to
ensure the job is done right from start to finish. All you have
to do is contact your Arrow ECS sales representative and
we’ll do the rest.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arrow ECS will NEVER compete against our VARs for
Pre-determined deliverables, timelines, and costs are
based on a Statement of Work (SOW).
“No strings attached”: VAR has the flexibility to decide
when and how to combine additional products, solutions, or services with each project.
Streamlined yet flexible engagement model accelerates
the sales cycle while preserving your client relationships.
Available project management resources ensure each
engagement goes as smoothly as possible.
One-stop-shopping: Our engineers and consultants are
experts in multiple products and technologies and can
leverage our extensive line card for solution recommendations.
For more information, contact professional services at 877.558.6677 or
PSSU1003RevB
Arrow FusionSM One Call Support Line Card
ARROW ENTERPRISE COMPUTING SOLUTIONS
All One Call support contracts offered by Arrow FusionSM Professional Services cover the following suppliers:
Additional support for suppliers not shown above may be available.
For more information, contact Arrow Fusion Professional Services at 877.558.6677 or
visit http://esc.arrow.com/services/professional_services.html
PS_LineCard_112311

DISYS Proposal - Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (CCPA)

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